


Adjusting to the Dark

by Microraptor_Glider



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga), Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Blanket Permission, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Dark, Demons, Dramatic Irony, Gen, Gozaburo is dead but referenced often enough to be a character, Hallucinations, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kaiba refuses to acknowledge what is going on, Major Character Undeath, Mentions of Ableism, Minor Character Death, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Past Child Abuse, Referenced Canonical Suicide, Supernatural - Freeform, Trans Character, Trans Kaiba, Trans Male Character, Trauma, Vampire Atem, Vampire Kaiba, Vampires, dark themes, mentions of cissexism, off screen murder, supernatural torture, unreality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-18 19:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 69,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11881503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Microraptor_Glider/pseuds/Microraptor_Glider
Summary: After recovering from an attack, Kaiba attempts to return to work. The problem: it was a vampire attack, and he didn’t recover so much as turn. Meanwhile, demons lurk ready to strike and take Kaiba Corp at the first sign of weakness





	1. The Attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Summary: Seto Kaiba survives an unnerving attack and makes a painful recovery.

Seto Kaiba was walking up to Kaiba Corp Tower’s large glass doors when something knocked the wind out of his lungs, pushing him backwards. Suddenly, he found himself in an alleyway, one next to the Tower if the towering glass wall to his right meant anything. Or for that matter, if the laws of physics meant anything. However, it was night, and his eyes were slow to adjust. He staggered and leaned against the wall, his heartbeat racing.

Something must have brought him here. Kaiba’s eyes darted from shadow to shadow. His voice caught for a moment before he yelled, “Show yourself.”

One of the shadows moved, and a figure came into view. As Kaiba’s eyes focused, he noticed it was a man, or rather a boy his own age. The boy was short with hair sculpted into spikes like the Mutou kid, but unlike the Mutou kid, his skin was a warm brown and his bangs seemed to defy gravity, flying out towards the center of each spike. The boy’s nostrils flared, and then he shook his head. “I’m sorry for what I have to do, but you are clearly tainted. You reek of demon.”

“What?” Kaiba croaked, still somehow managing to include some disdain in his voice. “If you are talking about the White Dragon Necklace, I won that fair and square.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace in question. Rows of pearls spun over his fingertips upon which dangled a sapphire the size of a peach pit. Between the sapphire and the pearls sat a miniature silver dragon curled around the gem as if it were its hoard. He knew his obsession with dragons was childish, but he couldn’t resist.

The boy rolled his eyes. “Anything that requires kidnapping an old man and sending him to the hospital is not won fair, especially considering you already had a dragon to sic on him.”

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. He did have the rest of the collection, three other identical necklaces that had cost a fortune to acquire, but the dragons were made of silver. He certainly couldn’t and didn’t sic them on anyone. Perhaps the boy was referring to his head of security Kisara and her team who had aided in the acquisition. She was fierce and had probably toyed with both the old man and the necklace, but she could hardly be called a dragon. In either case, Kaiba hated when people spoke in riddles. “So, what are you here for? To get it back? I can call Kisara to take care of you as well.”

“That was a part of the plan,” the boy smirked, quickly grabbing the other end of the necklace and pulling it just short of taught.

It was a challenge, and Kaiba could not turn down a challenge. He moved his own hand gently from side to side, carefully watching the boy mirror his actions. He then pushed his hand forward to loosen the string, and moved his left hand to unfurl the boy’s finger’s and release the necklace. Yet, before his hand could reach the boy’s, it stopped. Without Kaiba seeing him move, the boy had grabbed his left hand, and he felt the boy’s fingers press down with a cold iron grip. Kaiba’s eyes widened, and for a moment he forgot to breathe. How… ?

The boy continued to smirk.

Kaiba tried to move his hand, but he couldn’t budge the boy’s grip. Instead it felt like he was pushing against a statue. When he tried to pull back, the boy’s fingers pressed down harder, locking his hand in place. Red welts appeared on Kaiba’s skin beneath the boy’s fingertips. The boy’s smirk intensified. Kaiba grit his teeth and tried not to flinch at the pain.

The boy was toying with him, and it burned. A memory of Gozaburo towering above him flashed through Kaiba’s mind, and he panicked. Pulling the necklace back, he felt the string go taught before breaking. Pearls cascaded to the ground, before bouncing and rolling away. Staring at the now exposed old cotton strings, Kaiba rolled then under his fingers one last time before letting them too fall to the ground.

The boy blinked and then frowned. “I suppose we go to the other part of the plan.”

“Or you go home before I call security. The necklace is gone. Neither of us can have it now.” Kaiba’s free hand slid into his pocket fumbling for his phone.

However, as he pulled it out of his pocket, the boy released his left hand only to swat the phone down and pin him against the concrete wall across from Kaiba Corp. “Unfortunately, you are tainted to the point where I doubt a priest or hunter could cleanse you, and even if you weren’t, your actions reveal you. You are filth.” The boy dragged Kaiba down the wall so that their eyes were level. The concrete’s bumps and crannies dug into his back and burned. The boy’s eyes almost seemed to glow with a pale light.“If it is any consolation, my partner would not approve. I hope the darkness eats your taint and frees you before you die.”

Kaiba’s eyes widened, and despite knowing its futility he pushed at the hands that locked his shoulders in place. He clawed at the boy’s exposed arms and kicked at the boy’s legs to no avail. He even, for a moment, screamed until he felt two sharp pricks in his neck and then numbness.

He tried to dig his fingernails into the boy’s skin, but his fingers felt weak and lethargic. They barely moved and slid across the boy’s skin before they stopped and fell. His feet skid across the ground a few times before they went limp. A few gasps of air wheezed out of his lungs, his tongue unable to form words. Finally rainbow patterns tinged with darkness wove across his vision, while his ears went hot with dizziness. All sensations became vague and blurred like he was miles away from his own body.

Then, the last light left his vision, and he fell to darkness.

 

* * *

 

 

An eternity seemed to pass, and then Kaiba saw white in all directions. He blinked, twitched his toes, and shook his head, but everything felt off, like he was existing slightly to the left of reality. He moved his feet again and noticed that he wasn’t encountering any resistance. He bobbed in place. A squeak escaped his lips, and he started to flail. It took a moment to steady himself, and by the time he did, he was panting. What the fuck was going on? He stared downward into nothing, eyes struggling to focus without anything to focus on. Slowly his breathing returned to normal. Perhaps none of this was real anyways.

Looking back up, Kaiba began to notice a few details. First, a thin grey line started to form a horizon with wisps flying outward in both directions. Kaiba wasn’t sure whether it had been there before, but regardless he was grateful for its steadying influence. Second, a soft red glow emanated from behind him.

At first, the glow as disconcerting but curiosity got the better of Kaiba, and he began to twist his body to get a better view. Unfortunately, without anything to push against, he didn’t turn so much as slightly swivel in place. Glaring at the horizon, Kaiba pouted. Wherever he was, it was annoying. He concentrated on the horizon and willed himself to move, but before he had a chance to twist, he began to move, spinning on his axis. He startled and suddenly stopped, before concentrating and turning again.

He immediately regretted it.

In front of him stood a gigantic garnet bust of Gozaburo. It stood nearly eight feet tall with deeply carved eyes staring down at Seto. In addition to the glow the stone’s marbled pattern seemed to shift as if it was the shadows cast by a fire, and Seto thought he smelled a whiff of smoke. However, there was no fire to be seen, and the only light here was the omnipresent florescent glow. But, the most troubling aspect of the bust was how it wasn’t quite human. It certainly had Gozaburo’s face and his condescending sneer, but there were also a pair of rams horns that curled from the edges of Gozaburo’s forehead and wrapped around his ears. The parting of his lips revealed rows of sharpened teeth.

Seto felt his heart pound against his chest. He tried to remind himself that he was Kaiba now, but in front of Gozaburo it never felt true. After seeing that face, even with the man driven out and dead, it seemed like he was one transgression away from being sent to the orphanage and one misstep away from a long night of studying with no breaks and no dinner.

Seto willed himself away from the statue, cursing how slow his body drifted. The horizon was now a thick black stripe. It roiled and churned with a physical presence like a sandstorm made of charcoal and smoke. But, anywhere was better than here.

The bust glowed brighter for a moment and then a strand of garish red lashed out at Seto’s ankle. He pulled his leg towards his body and watched the strand pass beneath him, but soon other strands emerged from the statue and whipped towards him. He dodged one then two, yet eventually one wrapped around his torso and started pulling him forward. The outside of the swath was featureless, but it felt sinewy and writhed against his skin like a giant dry tongue. Grabbing and tugging on it jostled it and Seto around, but the efforts did little to detach himself or stop it from pulling him closer to the statue.

Seto barely saw the black clouds approaching or the light dim as he fought with the red swath. He pulled and tugged. He dug his fingernails into it and attempted to pry it off. He pounded against it and wedged his fingers between himself and it. None of it prevailed, and the statue held him 4 feet away from its taunting eyes.

But the clouds eventually came and fortunately they hit the bust first since at that moment embers flew up into the cloud quickly disappearing within it. The bust’s glow flickered for a few seconds and then extinguished. The swath writhed tossing Seto about before finally letting go. He didn’t have much time to react before the cloud completely overtook the statue leaving nothing more than a few bursts of light.

The black cloud continued rolling forward.

Kaiba glanced around, looking for a way out, but the only light was coming from above and below. The edges of the clouds formed a long thin tunnel in both directions With the cloud closing in, Kaiba decided to fuck it- he was floating anyway- and willed himself up. But, he moved painfully slow till and the dark cloud quickly consumed him.

The black cloud tossed him around like a rag doll and pelted him, though Kaiba could not see with what. It was confusing, and everything hurt.

Fortunately, not being able see anything and, in particular, being free of Gozaburo’s statue helped him clear his mind. This was nonsense. Everything that had happened since he got here was utter bullshit. There was even a chance that this was another hallucination, though most of his had only had auditory and visual symptoms. Seeing himself melting had been incredibly off-putting, but he didn’t remember the experience being this physically painful. Still, Kaiba considered, a strange boy had just beat him up in an alleyway; some physical pain was probably par for course.

  
Moreover, if he was hallucinating, there was still reality out there waiting for him. There was still Mokuba waiting for him to get home from work. Mokuba who was going to enter the fifth grade and insisted on going to public school rather than just having a private tutor because he wanted to be with the other kids. Mokuba who helped manage the company despite not having undergone his first growth spurt. Mokuba who still smiled and wanted his big brother to smile.

  
And, if it wasn’t a hallucination, well, there wasn’t anything more he could do than try to make it through this.

  
The pounding increased as time went on until the smoke did something it shouldn’t be able to do: it tightened around his throat. His already labored breathing became wheezes, and his fingers immediately went to his throat trying to find whatever was choking him. The smoke was thicker there but there was nothing to hold onto. He reminded himself that there was nothing there. This was not happening. He could still breathe.

  
He hated these exercises, but what choice did he have. He focused. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Deep breath in. One Two. Three. Four. Five. Deep breath out. One. Two…

  
Eventually the smoke gave up trying to strangle him, and then everything felt like it was on fire. The smoke burned against his skin and lungs, even though there was still not a speck of light to be seen. Still, Kaiba couldn’t hold back the scream that erupted from his throat. His mind was consumed by the pain, but a small part of him was glad to have some proof that he hadn’t actually been choking. That hardened his resolve to push forward. He thought of Mokuba.

  
When Kaiba managed to make it through that, the smoke felt like liquid sloshing all around him. Instead of pushing against his throat, it slid down into his lungs. Instead of fighting to breathe, his body became convinced that each breath was killing him. But, it wasn’t happening, he reminded himself. It couldn’t be happening. Somehow he kept breathing.

  
After a while, everything stopped. He floated in peaceful darkness, waiting for the hallucination to part. While he waited a whisper came, or rather words came without a voice, “Your soul is strong.”

  
Kaiba tried to laugh, but it exited his lips as a deflated sigh.

  
“We tried but cannot consume you. Still, we took your life; it is ours. You shall consume for us.”

 

* * *

 

 

Suddenly, the world shifted and changed. It was still dark, but his other senses were tumbled upside down.

  
First, Kaiba noticed the smell. The previous place, which Kaiba was already discounting as a particularly vivid dream, was odorless except for the brief period of burning that smelled of ashes and cinders. Now, he smelled rotting food, piss, sour milk and molds. Even the most pleasant overtones of coffee and tea did little to help the unholy bouquet unfurling in his mouth and nose and sitting at the bottom of his lungs. The intensity was overwhelming, assaulting his senses like nothing he’d ever experienced. He breathed out, pushing the air out his lungs and hoping that, by the time he had to breathe in, the stench would be gone. It didn’t stop the smell entirely but it would have to do for now.

  
In addition to the smell, a shallow pool of liquid soaked the side of hair and the front of his shirt, and some had even leaked in through his previously parted lips. He sputtered, attempting unsuccessfully to spit out every trace of the liquid and then sealing his mouth against anymore entering.

  
Having provided himself that relief, Kaiba noticed he was no longer floating but rather was laying belly down on a cool metal surface with his head twisted to the side uncomfortably. Weight pushed down on him unevenly. In some places, the pressure was focused and sharp such as the line weight that went down his back before stopping at a point that dug into his spine. Other places were simultaneously heavy and soft. Whatever was covering his face stuck to his cheek and molded to his head’s crevices, yet pushed him down almost pinning him against the wet ground.

  
Kaiba curled his fingers around the pressure on his right hand hoping to move it out of the way. Immediately noticed it was a plastic bag by the way the film stuck to his skin and tugged when he pulled on it. When he tried to lift the bag, it buckled against the things above and around it. He was able to push it up half a foot before the bag ripped, releasing another wave of noxious fumes.

  
Kaiba dropped the bag and gagged, expecting himself to barf but finding himself unable. He continued to hope that he wouldn’t have to breathe in.

  
There was no choice but to lie there and wait. He let his mind drift to the city sounds around him. They were understandably muffled but also louder than usual. He heard the thrum of car engines and the occasional screech of tires. Somewhere far down the street construction was underway. The breeze funneling through the streets gave a low whistle he’d never stopped long enough to hear before. There were footsteps and distant overlapping conversations, though the muffling meant that he couldn’t pick distinguish any words. And, underneath it all were quiet but hypnotizing iterations of tu _-_ tup.

  
A hunger began to crawl at the back of his mind. No. Not hunger. He didn’t want to eat. Whether it was the stench around him or something else, the thought of eating anything from a common burger to his favorite beef fillet sounded.. disgusting.

  
Yet, the occasional tu-tup immediately lured him and intensified his hunger. He salivated, and something twitched in his upper jaw. He wanted to run towards whatever was making that noise and bite into it, rip into it. He wanted to hear it, but he also wanted to it to stop- to be the one who stopped it. The compulsion was so strong that he tried to stand up, but, again, shifting the bags released more foul odors that pinned him in place.

  
Kaiba was trapped and terrified. The pitch black sensory hell was bad enough, but now he had the hunger raking across his thoughts, giving him violent desires he didn’t understand. Why would he react so strongly to such a small simple sound? A need rang through his body to get up, go, grab the noise. I can’t, he tried to remind himself, but the need persisted. The only thought that placated it was the idea that he waiting, biding his time. And, with that, his consciousness drifted away, leaving his body limp.

  
He still hadn’t breathed in.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time he came to, he had an amazing taste in his mouth. Sweet and rich but slightly metallic he swallowed and savored it. His tongue instinctually licked his lips, trying to find more. Moreover, he felt relaxed, and he finally could think straight. The hunger was gone or at least sated. Something in his mouth pulled back.

  
That’s when Kaiba started processing the situation around him. He was no longer pinned against the ground, but was in fact standing. The smell was strong but not nearly as overwhelming. The sounds were crisper, including a blaring incessant beep. A pulsing light illuminated the scene, and Kaiba’s eyes drifted towards a pale corpse in a bright green vest slouched against the wall in front of him.

  
Kaiba tried to scream, but without any air in his lungs, the noise caught in his throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy this! It’s my first multichapter\longer fic in a while (though not my first one), so we’ll see how it goes. Daydreams regarding this have been assaulting me for the past several days, so I really wanted to get it out. I will be starting graduate school soon, so while I plan to write regularly, I don’t know how quickly chapters will be coming out.
> 
> I tried to follow Kaiba’s perspective partly to emphasize how weird and confusing this was for him. Hopefully, you were able to pick up on some things he didn’t, and if not hopefully things will become more apparent as the story moves forward. I did realize towards the end that I could have used a soul room for the white space sequence, but I loved the visuals of this and it was already written.
> 
> Also, at this point, Atem is very much like season 0 Yami, passing often disproportionate judgments based on the bad behavior of other people without knowing fully what’s going on.


	2. Waking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba attempts to rationalize and deal with the situation in front of him. Unfortunately, he came to some wrong conclusions. As his plan to get home veers off course, a helpful- if ominous- stranger appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter content Warnings: graphic depictions of gore and death, referenced canonical suicide (Gozaburo’s)
> 
> Also, I added a detail to the last scene (end of the first paragraph thereof) of the previous chapter since posting.
> 
> Update: I added some information part way through this chapter as I fleshed out an idea and realized that it should have been introduced here. If you don't want to re-read the whole thing the information is included during Kaiba's first encounter with arnold the security guard.

Kaiba stared at the corpse in front of him and took a step backwards. His lip trembled and his hand shook at the scene.

The corpse looked outward with its head rolled to the side revealing a tight ring of red on the neck and two pairs of holes in its center. Its legs folded unnaturally as if somebody had picked up a doll and dropped it, and Kaiba realized a moment later that the analogy might be apt. Around the corpse was a small puddle of piss, the man’s bladder finally giving up just before death. A hiss of air escaped the corpse’s lips, but Kaiba heard no breathing after that. It was probably just gas leaving the corpse. Kaiba leaned forward and poked the body, hoping his senses were lying. It was warm, but it didn’t respond at all. It was actually dead.

Tearing his eyes away, Kaiba hoped to find something to explain the situation, but instead there was another two bodies tossed to the side and a garbage truck idling behind him. A dumpster stood beside him with its lid open and horrendous smells wafting out. A trash bag lay scattered next to one of the other bodies.

What had happened here? What even had the power to do this?

The only thought that came to mind that wasn’t straight out of a myth was the boy who attacked him.  While Kaiba didn’t pretend that he was particularly strong, he wasn’t weak either, yet trying to move the boy had been like fighting with a statue. Glancing at the holes on the corpse’s neck, he remembered feeling pinpricks on his own neck after the boy had pushed him up against the wall, and how his body had lost all of its energy afterwards. The memory of the pain moved his hand, and he found his fingers sliding over his own neck. A shiver went down Kaiba’s spine.

However, he didn’t feel any holes.

He remembered the pain. There should be something.  Maybe it was shallow? He pushed his fingers harder across his skin, hoping to find anything to support the memory. Even a slight throb would do.

There was nothing.

He stared at the deep holes on corpse’s neck, and practically pinched his own neck in frustration. What was going on?

Kaiba then glanced at his left hand. He had seen red welts appear across the back of his hand when the boy had squeezed it, but now it looked pristine if a bit pale. He opened and closed it as if to confirm that it was real, that it was his. It was.

Maybe the memory was fake? No. He wouldn’t voluntarily go near a pile of garbage, let alone lay under one. Something had to have at least incapacitated him and probably knocked him out. Maybe the memory was exaggerated?

As if the scene in front of him wasn’t. Why was he alive while these people were slaughtered? If the boy had qualms with anyone, it was him.

Kaiba stared at the body in front of him for a while before he shook his head. This was spinning his brain in circles and not accomplishing anything. He closed his eyes and blocked out the dizzying questions surrounding how he got here. He needed to focus on what he was going to do next. As his first priority, he had to get back to Kaiba Corp and from there home to Mokuba.  Mostly he wanted to see Mokuba. There was no particular reason for it. His brother was probably just as healthy, happy, and safe as he had been when he went to school that morning, and his brother would have no idea of what he just went through. But, it was Mokuba that kept his will strong during the vivid nightmare, and it was Mokuba that he needed to see. Everything else would be planned around that.

So, he probably wouldn’t spend much time at the corporate headquarters. His original reason for going to the office was to read some productivity and labor reports, and he could just as easily bring them home with him. He supposed cleaning himself up in the bathroom would also be reasonable, since he wouldn’t want his brother seeing him in this sorry state. He would also need to change into spare clothes to replace his current outfit, which was both waterlogged and stained. The less reason his brother had to worry the better.

Having established the best way to get home to Mokuba both quickly and presentably, Kaiba realized that he would have to report the murder. He frowned; he wasn’t sure how long that would take.

However, it did need to get done. Not only would waiting too long be suspicious, but the victims deserved it. They had done nothing wrong. Hell, they had been doing their jobs when they were attacked. Jobs he would have previously dismissed as unimportant and trivial but somebody had to do them, and now somebody was dead for it.

Kaiba opened his eyes and glanced around for hints to his location. Now that he wasn’t panicking over the gore, he could see that he was in the lowest basement level of a parking garage. There were no cars except the still running garbage truck, though Kaiba mused it was making enough noise for the whole garage. It practically made his ears ring. However, the only way out was past the offending sound, so he started his march out, stepping over a scattering of broken glass by the open driver’s door.

The garage was probably the one behind the Kaiba Corp Tower, since Kaiba doubted his attacker would try to drag his body very far. Or, at least he hoped he wouldn’t have to walk far in the open with everyone able to see- and smell- that he had just taken a trash bath.

He left the worst of the stench behind him as he ascended the ramp, so he pushed some gunk off his face and ventured a shallow breath in. He still stunk of course; it would take a change of clothes and several showers to get the last traces of garbage off his skin. But, he also smelled other things. The asphalt. Leftover gasoline fumes. Even a faint trace of body odor from the long gone visitors. Other than the garbage people, there probably hadn’t been anybody here for the past hour, not even people working a late shift. While it was nice to finally smell something other than rot, a part of Kaiba worried about how quickly he accepted the information. He knew that simply sniffing shouldn’t have told him that, but he couldn’t convince himself otherwise.

Not too long after starting to walk, Kaiba reached an alcove with an elevator, and he practically melted with relief upon seeing the Kaiba Corp Tower lobby listed on the directory. He jammed the up button several times before finally ascending to the first floor.

Despite having walked through the floor many times on the way to his office, everything was new. Familiar details from the gurgle of the fountain to the pulse of the fluorescent lights felt more intense, but new details also emerged. He had never before gotten a whiff of the cleaning solution from the floor, nor had he ever noticed the air vents particular hiss. He hadn’t heard the particular squeak of rubber-soled shoes, probably belonging to a security guard, against the tile floor, nor had he heard the slight hush of the guard breathing. Finally, he certainly had never heard soft thumping  _tu_ _h_ _-t_ _h_ _u_ _b_  followed the security guard’s footsteps.

Blinking, Kaiba recognized it as a fuller, fleshier version of the sound which had captivated him while he was in the dumpster. Without the hunger gnawing at his nerves, no urgent need welled up inside him, but it was still alluring. He kept listening as he walked towards the company elevator that would carry him to his office.

The elevator dinged to acknowledge his request. The footsteps turned towards his direction, and then the rhythmic  _tuh-thub_  quickened. “Hey! Are you supposed to be here?”

Kaiba turned towards the guard, a buff man staring at him with wide eyes. A quick flare of Kaiba’s nostrils revealed the man to be healthy, albeit a bit nervous, and unsure of exactly why it seemed relevant, he tucked the information away for later. Moreover, Kaiba’s eyes locked onto the source of the thumping- or at least what his ears claimed was the source- inside the man’s chest. But, it was impossible. To think that he could actually be hearing… _that_  was ridiculous. To even entertain the notion…

“Answer the question.”

Kaiba refocused his attention and forced himself to fill his lungs with air. “Of course I’m supposed to be here; I own the building. Now, let me get to my office.”

It was almost amusing to watch the realization dawn on the guard’s face, but instead of turning away the man reached for the walkie talkie on his vest. “I have somebody claiming to be Seto Kaiba. It might actually be him, but I’d like somebody from the office to come down and confirm.  He seems a bit worse for wear.”

“Is it really that hard to believe it's me?”

The man gave a small laugh. “Looking like that? A little. But, I mostly don’t want to declare you found without checking in. I haven’t been here long enough to make that kind of call.”

Found? The word gave Kaiba a pause. Slowly words fell out of his mouth. “How long was I gone?”

The thumping quickened again, and the man shifted his weight. It was always hard for employees to deliver bad news. “You were officially declared missing three days ago.”

Kaiba felt the floor drop out from under him. Three days. At least, to give them time to officially declare it. So, make it four. Mokuba had been waiting for  _four_ days, unsure of when or if he would come home. Isono was there of course, which helped things marginally, but it didn’t mean that Mokuba wouldn’t worry. It certainly didn’t mean he was safe. What if somebody tried to take advantage of the situation? What if the police had given up on him and insisted that Mokuba go back to the orphanage? There was only so much Isono could do, especially because their agreement only went so far.

The agreement was, of course, that Isono was technically Kaiba’s and Mokuba’s legal guardian. After he had taken the company from Gozaburo and after his adopted father’s suicide, the government had decided that Kaiba needed someone to look after him. Kaiba disagreed; he’d seen what could happen if he gave someone that much power over him, and he had just barely gotten out of that situation. There was no way he’d submit himself like that again. Plus, even if- and Kaiba considered this a big if- the person involved didn’t abuse their position, Kaiba also knew parents were unreliable; he had already walked three of them to the grave. The first time, his relatives for whatever good they were had taken everything and left him to the orphanage.

There was also the issue of company bylaws. Gozaburo Kaiba was a man obsessed with legacy, and since Kaiba Corp was the pinnacle of that legacy, it was one he had kept close his chest with plans to do so even in death. At the company’s founding back when Gozaburo had still been young, he had inserted into the corporation’s founding document that CEO must themselves be a Kaiba. While this had been partly a way to secure his position in life, Seto Kaiba knew very well the man’s obsession with finding a perfect heir of his choosing, one that could act as his proxy come death. The man’s quest had dominated five years of Seto’s life.

So, adoption was not an option. It would break the legal ties that bound him to Gozaburo and more importantly Gozaburo’s name. Perhaps in good times, it could have been argued that with the inheritance already won the ties no longer mattered, but times were never good. There was always someone ready to argue the other case.

Unfortunately, he had at the time only been just shy of fifteen, and adoption or not, the state demanded a legal guardian. Chikuzen Oza, the scheming lawyer of the Big Five, would have had some difficulty arguing against the government to let him stay parentless. To achieve that and allow him to continue to protect his brother Mokuba would have been impossible. Trusting Chikuzen to not attempt to take the heir to Kaiba Corp for himself? Now that was laughable. Chikuzen, however, was no Gozaburo, and alerting the other four businessmen was enough for their mutual distrust to take care of the rest.

So, the honor had to go to someone and most importantly someone Kaiba trusted. Someone close enough that the government would accept the thin charade, but that wouldn’t attempt to use or, even more broadly, control him. That narrowed the list of candidates down to two: Kisara and Isono. Kisara was herself a tempting option, but while there was a chance that either of them would attempt to actually parent him, at least with Isono, a healthy dose of professional fear would ward him off. While Kisara seemed to fear many things as a head of security must, Kaiba knew better to think that he would ever be one of them.

But, because Isono respected the agreement, Isono’s guardianship was only a technicality and a flimsy one at that. It had given his lawyers enough to work with, but an extended disappearance and increased scrutiny could upset that balance. For that matter, getting sent to the orphanage- despite being Kaiba’s greatest fear for five years- was the least of the worries now. Mokuba would be the sole heir to Kaiba Corporation, and while he had been stepping up to help recently and would have Kisara and Isono to help him, he wasn’t ready for that yet. The economics of it, management practices, how to foster research and development, Mokuba could figure those out in time, but the internal politics would eat him alive.

“If you don’t mind me asking, but what happened?”  Kaiba shot him a glare. “That’s cool.”

Eventually an older man emerged from a doorway at the end of the hall; another wobblier  _tuh-thu_ _b_ followed the new pair of footsteps. Kaiba recognized him as someone who often worked with Kisara but couldn’t exactly place the man’s name. The older man nodded at the guard. “Thank you, Arnold. That is him. You may leave.” Arnold nodded back and gave Kaiba an uneasy side-eye before leaving.

Kaiba decided to ignore the guard and turned his attention to the older man. “Where’s Kisara?”

“Simply at home, sir. She had been spearheading the search for you, but eventually even she needs to sleep. Would you like me to call her in?”

“No,” Kaiba rolled his lips in disappointment. “There was just something I was going to ask her to do. You could probably do it just as well.” The older man composed himself, ready for orders. “I woke up by the dumpster in lower level parking garage next to three dead garbage collectors. This needs to be reported to the police, and we should start our own internal investigation of the incident as well. I will be heading upstairs to pick up some things from the office before heading home to be with family.” He realized that the situation would likely be more complicated than that, but sometimes simply saying things with enough authority made them true.

“Sir… If what you say is true, then it may be best if you waited down here until the police arrived. They will likely want an official statement. We can have Arnold pick up your things for you.”

“Of course.” Kaiba still pursed his lips. This might take longer than anticipated. “All I need are a couple of reports that should have been left on my desk and a spare school uniform in the lower left hand drawer of my desk.”

The older man gestured towards Arnold and repeated the instructions before handing him a key and sending him off. Then the man turned back to Kaiba. “I know you may not want to discuss this, but as the senior member of security in the building, it is my job. Are you ok?”

“I’m covered in trash, what do you think?” The older man seemed unimpressed with this answer. “Fine, yeste- Monday night I was attacked on my way back to the office. My attacker easily overpowered me and knocked me out. Maybe he thought I was dead and tried to dispose of my body because the next time I woke up, I was at the bottom of the dumpster. The time after that I woke up surrounded by dead bodies.” As he spoke the authoritative veneer slid off his voice, and he began to tremble. “What if he’s trying to torture me? We need to do our own investigation on this. I need to get home as soon as possible.”

The older man reached up to touch him but decided against it when he pulled away. He rarely wanted anyone to touch him, least of all now. The man seemed saddened by this. “Don’t worry. We will be conducting a thorough investigation parallel to the police’s. You will probably be able to go home as soon as you issue the statement. Another thing I have to ask is what happened to your hand?”

Kaiba cautiously started to lift up his left hand, remembering that he had checked it for marks before, but the man shook his head and gestured towards his right hand. Lifting that one up, Kaiba noticed a web of dark red blood across his knuckles and the back of his hand. Without thinking he pulled it up to his nose and sniffed, but he immediately recoiled at the smell of something sour in addition to the trashy haze. Kaiba suddenly became aware of the absurdity of the action and turned away from the man’s gaze. “I must have cut it while in the dumpster.”

The older man then excused himself to call the police station, leaving Kaiba with his thoughts for a moment. He hated it. Not being left alone, that was fine. It was all the noises, smells, and lights that made a quiet moment loud. It was the choice between focusing on things which shouldn’t be there or letting himself remember the garbage collector’s face. Kaiba curled inward and crossed his arms.

Eventually the older man returned, and Kaiba decided to correct a mistake. “I’m not sure I have your name.”

“Jun Liu, sir”

That rang a bell. “Kisara recruited you on a trip to Beijing, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

Kaiba considered things for a moment then noted, “I will notify Kisara of your performance today. You have done well.”

* * *

Not even half a minute after Arnold came down with the bag of clothes and reports, two people and two pairs of  _tuh-thub_  walked into the lobby and headed straight towards Kaiba. One was a round woman with her hair pulled back under a scarf with a stiff step, while trailing behind her was a short man who walked like he was trying not to dance to the song in his head. Like Arnold they both smelled healthy and fit though in a softer way. As they approached the woman reached into her jacket and pulled a badge out. “Hello, I’m Detective Wasseem, and this is Detective Ito. The crime scene is cordoned off and being processed by the officers, so we would now like to speak with you.” Detective Wasseem explained, twirling the badge in her hand before putting it away. “You must be Mr. Liu, who I talked with over the phone, and you must be Seto Kaiba.”

She reached out to shake both of their hands, nose crinkling when she reached towards Kaiba. He reluctantly grabbed her hand. Her warm hand stiffened upon contact and her  _tuh-thub_  jumped for a moment, before she released her grip.

“Kaiba is fine.” His first name always made him feel young, and while he may be younger than Jun Liu, he had the senior position at the company. “It's a good thing you could come out here. This is important.”

“Yeah,” Detective Ito laughed. “You got quite a horror show going down there.” He sounded almost irreverent, but Kaiba’s nose detected a trace of unease. Understandable, considering they just saw the bodies. Detective Ito let out another laugh. “In fact, you’re not that pleasant of a sight either.”

“Probably not that pleasant of a smell too, so it would be best for all of us if we got this over with as soon as possible.”

“You can say that again.” Detective Ito leaned forward and smiled, but upon not receiving a response from Kaiba, his expression dropped. “So, Mr. Liu mentioned you getting attacked. Could you expand on that? What did the attacker look like? Did they have any weapons?”

Kaiba shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I was dragged into an alley on the way back to work. When I could see who it was, it looked like one of my classmates Yugi Mutou, who has a very distinctive look. Short with spiked hair and blonde bangs. But, the attacker was also very different. His skin was darker. His hair was more sculpted but his bangs were wild. He didn’t act like Yugi either.  Yugi has a reputation for letting people walk over him, and he doesn’t have much to back up what spine he does have. Not like this.”

“Yes, your file mentions that you had gotten into a disagreement with Yugi Mutou and his grandfather over…” Detective Wasseem pulled out a small notebook from within her blazer. “Over a rare necklace. Yugi Mutou spent that night in the hospital with his grandfather, who was injured at one of your facilities. Were the incidents related?”

“My file?” The information was correct. He had transported Sugoroku Mutou to a virtual gaming center owned by Kaiba Corp. There, they each bet a copy of the White Dragon Necklace on a game of augmented reality chess, where they each took the place of the king.

Unfortunately for Sugoroku Mutou, the realism of the game, especially the death of the bishops, peons, and knights, shook the old man, and he played a poor game. After achieving checkmate, the program ended with the losing player being attacked by the threatening piece. It was holographic and ultimately harmless, but it gave the old man enough of a scare to pass out. Yugi and his gaggle of friends had escorted the man to the hospital, though not before Yugi had attempted to get the necklace back, a challenge Kisara quickly dealt with herself.

“Your missing person file.” Detective Ito gave a reassuring smile. “It says that in addition to your head of security, your brother and your assistant Isono had insisted the department investigate your disappearance because they suspected foul play. We are merely trying to tie in what you're saying to what’s there.”

“Moreover,” Detective Wasseem immediately cut in. “The file had eliminated Yugi Mutou and his family as suspects, since there are witnesses placing them at the hospital for the entire night that you went missing. Are you sure you want to say the attacker looked like him?”

Kaiba titled his head. “‘The file mentioned’, ‘the file had eliminated’. It doesn’t sound like you two were officially on the investigation, so you don’t seem to be in a position to tell me what I want to say, particularly because I was the one who contacted you about this, not the other way around.” Detective Wasseem leaned away at the remarks but kept a stern expression on her face, while Detective Ito sent his partner a questioning glance. “Moreover, I specifically emphasized that my attacker resembled Yugi in some ways, but was definitely not him. So, whatever Yugi was doing that night is actually irrelevant.

“The incidents were, however, related. Along with some occult nonsense, my attacker mentioned Sugoroku going to the hospital. Not sure how he knew about it, but he did. In fact we had a scuffle over the necklace, and it broke. Not too long after that, the boy disposed of me.”

Looking back, Kaiba mused that he probably should have left the new acquisition with Kisara and the other necklaces, but he had been so excited to finally have it that his judgment had lapsed. Then again, he had not known at the time that he would be attacked and thrown in a dumpster. Life was unpredictable and harsh; he’d learned that young. Still, he had wanted so badly to own the complete set. In a way, he now had a complete set of three, but it wasn’t the same.

“What kind of occult nonsense? It might help us track him down,” Detective Ito offered.

“Bullshit about demons and darkness mostly. The way he talked, it sounded like he thought I was possessed or something.”

Detective Wasseem looked like she was trying not to roll her eyes. “And, how did the boy dispose of you? Did he have any weapons?”

“He was just strong. I could barely do anything to stop him.” Kaiba’s hand wandered up to his neck. “It gets a little blurry, but I remember him pushing me against the wall and then pricks on my neck, though I don’t feel anything there now, so….” He didn’t want to sound weak, but he didn’t want to sound like a liar, especially with Detective Wasseem already suspicious. He left it at a shrug. “I blacked out not too long afterwards. Next I woke up, and I was buried in the dumpster unable to move because of the smell. After that I woke up outside it with the bodies around me.”

“Could we see your neck?”

Kaiba moved his hand away.  He looked expectantly at the detectives and then at Jun Liu, who had stepped to the side.

“I don’t see anything.” Detective Waseem chided, tapping her finger against the notebook.

Detective Ito shrugged. “Not being hurt usually is a good thing.” His voice wavered a bit, and the emphasis dropped on the ‘usually’. “It should be a good thing that it didn’t happen.”

Kaiba let out a sigh and looked down. He remembered it. He remembered being pinned against the wall. He remembered the pain at his neck, and he certainly remembered how everything went numb and weak afterwards. And, whether or not that happened, he still ended up in a dumpster for three or four days, and he still woke up surrounded by corpses. His hand slowly and gracelessly fell to his side.

“There is a stain on your collar, sir,” Jun Liu spoke, startling everyone. He’d been so quiet he almost blended into the background. It was only his breathing and  _tuh-thub_  that reminded Kaiba he was still there, and focusing on the detectives, Kaiba had tuned those out. However captivating the noises were, they were still so much softer than talking.

“There are plenty of stains on my clothes. I assume this one is different.”

“It looks like it could be dried blood, sir.”

Kaiba’s mouth went into an ‘o’. Maybe it did happen. Unfortunately, before he could further process this new information, Detective Wasseem cut in, “While we are on the topic, what about the blood on your hand. How did that get there?”

Kaiba hesitated then shrugged. “Must have cut myself on something in the dumpster.”

“Are you aware that one of the garbage truck’s windows was shattered? By the looks of it, whoever attacked those people, busted the window in order to get to the driver. Most of the glass was on the driver's seat, and the seat belt was even ripped apart rather than unbuckled.”

“What does that ha-” Kaiba was in the middle of snapping back, when he saw his hand again. The web of red across his hand was formed of a number of little streaks, exactly what one would expect if shards of glass had fallen across it. He touched his fingers with his left hand. It felt normal, unharmed. He looked back at Detective Wasseem, who glared at him incredulously, while Detective Ito for once did not attempt to offer any hope. The evidence did seem fairly damning.

But, it also was completely ridiculous. “First, you would think my hand would still be hurting if I punched through the window of a truck, and it doesn’t hurt at all. Second, I don’t think I’m physically capable of ripping apart a seat belt, even if-  _if_ \- I wanted to. Third, what do you think I did? Hop into a dumpster, wait four days, abandoning my brother and my company in the process, only to jump out and murder some garbage collectors I’ve never met before. Oh, and then walk up here to report it. Do you realize what you’re saying?”

Detective Ito responded. “We aren’t saying we know exactly what happened, but a number of details are suspicious, your hand among them. The bodies were still warm; they couldn’t have been there that long. Chances are you were there when they were murdered, and unless we check the tapes and find that someone left the garage not too long before you woke up, then you are by default the only suspect. You are right that things don’t entirely add up in any case, but you see why we have to check.”

“Or, you could realize that your only suspect is sheet white, hasn’t eaten any solid food in four days, and still smells like the deepest pits of hell,” A mysterious voice announced, causing Kaiba to almost jump out of his skin. “I’ve seen corpses that looked more alive.”

It took a moment Kaiba’s eyes to find the source of the voice, which turned out to be a dark skinned man in a suit with a white turban wrapped loosely around his head. But, something was wrong, deeply wrong. After a second, Kaiba realized that he wasn’t hearing anything from the man, not any footsteps, not a breath, and certainly not a  _tuh-thub_. Taking a quick sniff, he realized that there were no new scents either. He could see the man and hear the man speak, but otherwise it was like he wasn’t there. With that Kaiba started to realize just how quickly he came to expect those senses, even as he tried to deny and ignore them.

Maybe this was proof that he wasn’t actually hearing- Kaiba loathed to acknowledge it with a name- heartbeats. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to be hearing or smelling these things. He was just out of it after being missing. In a dumpster. For four days. The stranger in front of him was normal.

The thought provided some comfort but didn’t stop the alarms going off in his head.

However, as Kaiba stared, wide-eyed at the man, the two detectives were already talking. “Well, I can’t say whether I was expecting to see you here. You tend to work nights, but no one could find you around. Shannon said she hadn’t seen you around the department the past few days. Yet, somehow you always manage to show up.” Detective Wasseem almost spat the words out.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on something, but I appear where I am needed.”

The statement made Detective Ito laugh. “Of course you do. That’s why you have your finger in every pie in the department. And, you mention corpses looking more alive. I’ve never seen a corpse that sarcastic. And, for somebody who hasn’t eaten or drunk for four days, he seems fairly alert. Again, not saying he did it, but it is fairly odd, don’t you think.”

“Odd, perhaps. However, life contains many odd things, most of which we never know the rhyme or reason for. It doesn’t mean there isn’t any, though. The shock of waking up to that scene may have fed him some adrenaline. He may be pushing forward on willpower alone. He may be ignoring all the warning signs his body is sending him. We would never know just looking. Asking him may work, but there is a chance that even he does not know himself.” The strange man looked directly at him.

Kaiba blinked. They were talking about him weren’t they? He curled his lip back in distaste. “I’m… no, I’m not entirely fine.” He continued staring at the stranger. “You haven’t introduced yourself.”

“Sorry for my rudeness.” The stranger gave a professional smile and bobbed his head. “I’m Detective Shadi. I was spearheading the investigation into your disappearance, and as such, I should have gotten here earlier. As said, there is important business I have to keep track of, and your sudden reappearance was quite the surprise.”

“It’s not like you were that much later than these bozos,” Kaiba snorted. Detective Shadi’s presence or lack thereof may be off-putting, but he could still be useful. “Perhaps you can talk some sense into them.”

Detective Wasseem rolled her eyes. “If there is any sense in the Domino Police Department, it certainly wouldn’t come from Shadi. He transferred in half a year ago and has had the captain under his thumb ever since. He doesn’t have a partner and gets whatever cases fit his fancy. I’m not sure it even matters if he makes progress on them. Plus, whatever important business he’s talking about wasn’t with the department, and he hadn’t even put in leave. I don’t doubt the captain will somehow manage to ignore this, like everything else he does, but if you don’t want to look suspicious, he’s not the guy you want on your side.”

Detective Shadi seemed unfazed by the disparagement. “Maybe not me, but reason might convince you. If you leave him tonight, it's not like he can go anywhere. Not only is he the richest person in the city, but his face has also been plastered all over the news after his disappearance. If he wanted to avoid notice, he’d have to crawl back into a dumpster and even then eventually he’d have to feed. Let him go. You can get a warrant later.”

“Maybe,” Detective Wasseem said. “But, there’s still the issue of his health. ‘Not entirely fine’ is a long ways off from the condition we would expect someone with his story to be in. He should check into the hospital on the way home. It would be good to have a professional opinion on his condition.” She pressed her lips together and glanced at the ground. “You are right that he is a bit pale, and when we shook hands, he felt cool to the touch. He should probably get that checked out.”

Detective Shadi opened his mouth and then closed it before putting his fingertips together, glancing upward, and muttering something quick. He then looked directly at Kaiba. “Well, it seems like… a reasonable enough request.”

“And a necessary one for both the detectives here and myself,” Kaiba conceded. On one level, he felt physically fine. Better in fact than he had before the incident, which was a confusing and scary thought.  What if Detective Shadi was right and he was ignoring something?  There were of course signs. The sounds and smells that shouldn’t exist. The paleness and apparently coolness of his skin. The blood on his collar and across his fingers. What if he got home only to collapse on the floor? Kaiba wasn’t even sure why he was alive; the prospect of this all catching up to him didn’t sound far fetched.

“That would be satisfactory then.” Detective Wasseem did not sound or smell satisfied, but she put both her pen and her notepad away.

“I guess we’ll go back to examining dead bodies and pondering the depravity of human nature. Though, considering your clothes are covered in evidence, it would be great if you dropped them off at evidence. Later of course.” And, with that Detective Ito went back to lighthearted laughs and reassuring smiles. The two then turned to leave.

Kaiba turned towards Detective Shadi. “Are you going to be leaving as well?”

“There is something I would like to discuss with you before you leave, but if you have other business to attend to first, I can wait.”

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “Surely, then, this can wait until another day.”

“No.”

“So, you think this is more important than a murder investigation?” Kaiba almost laughed.

Detective Shadi did not even blink at the question. “The investigation pertains to lives already lost due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control. What I come with now is a warning about what we can control and the lives, both yours and of those around you, that may be at stake.”

Well, if that wasn’t ominous. Though, perhaps Detective Shadi had some information on the boy who attacked him. While Detective Shadi was odd, he also seemed reasonable and competent, and Kaiba decided to hear him out. “I can’t imagine the scene I woke up to being an accident, but since you’re willing to wait, I have to first clean up. I’m not sure I can stand another moment smelling like this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As in the last chapter, one thing I’m doing with this work is having a lot of fun with limited perspectives, where no one has a complete idea of what is going on. Except maybe Shadi, but even Shadi has blind spots. Needless to say it was fun to write.
> 
> Bonus points if you can guess what Shadi was keeping an eye on. 
> 
> Also, I spent more time sifting through for typos this time, but there’s still a chance (probability sadly close to 1) that some made it through.
> 
> Thank you to holybikinisbatman on tumblr for helping me come up with names for Jun Liu and Detective Wasseem (her first name is Maram).
> 
> Fun facts: Jun Liu used to be in the military and Arnold does cross fit.


	3. Twisted Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As he changes into clean clothes Kaiba has a moment to reflect on what had gotten him to that point and the current state of his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I uploaded this to tumblr a week ago, but got lazy and didn't upload it to here until now. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Chapter Content Warnings: brief discussions of dysphoria, mentions of cissexism (trans broken arm syndrome), mentions of child abuse, hallucinations, unreality (the chapter has actual hallucinations and… magic stuff… though Kaiba isn’t distinguishing them, it should be clear which is which, but I’m including this for that reason.)

Kaiba started stripping the moment the bathroom door closed behind him. If the detectives hadn’t specifically asked for his clothes, he would have tossed them in the trash and then ordered them incinerated for good measure. Even glancing at them made him nauseous with the memory of the dumpster. But, alas, he had to hold onto them and instead neatly, if hastily, folded them and set them aside. Only two things made him pause for a moment.

First, there was indeed a red stain across the collar of his inner shirt, still dark but brighter than the web of blood across his hand. The stain was two neighboring splotches that were just large enough to connect in the middle with a few drips heading towards the shirt’s shoulder. With the front of his shirt soaked and stained a sickly brown and other splotches scattered across the fabric, the red smear didn’t appear that out of place. Hell, it could have been mistaken for a ketchup stain if he hadn’t remembered being hurt there. That and there was an actual glob of ketchup on his outer shirt’s elbow that had a completely different consistency.

Just as with the blood on the back of his hand, Kaiba was suddenly tempted to sniff it, but the stench, fortunately, prevented him from instinctively acting on it.

Kaiba scowled. It shouldn’t have been a temptation in the first place. Then again, his nose shouldn’t have decided to be so damn informative. His nose had no reason, no right, to tell him if someone was healthy or nervous or if no one had been there for the past hour, and if it dared to tell him that, there must be something wrong with it, him, or both. Hell, it wouldn’t be the first time his brain had fucked up. He shouldn’t trust it, yet somehow he couldn’t convince himself not to. And, with that failure, the pang of curiosity lingered.

The second thing that gave him pause was a more practical issue: what to do with his packer. He felt naked without it, and he still had things to do and people to interact with before he went home. Even if no one else noticed, he would notice and that would be enough. His skin crawled at the thought, and he considered placing it on the sink counter rather than in the pile. It’s not like the detectives had a warrant for them anyway; he was complying to help prove his story, which the packer wouldn’t help with.

He curled his lips in thought.

At least with his binder, there were health concerns to worry about. He had in the past forgotten to take the binder off after a long night working and had, upon realizing it, regretted the decision, feeling it press against his chest and constricting his breathing. Wearing it for four days straight… a shiver went down his spine. Even now he felt it press uncomfortably against his chest, so he pulled it off, accidentally creating a tear in the process. As soon as it came off, his chest and ribs adjusted to normal, but strangely being able to breath wasn’t that much of a relief. He vaguely considered putting it back on.

But, the packer and the binder were also completely unsanitary, and his disgust at keeping anything- even something as important as them- that had spent the past four days with him in the dumpster eventually won out. The smell alone was enough to give him second thoughts.

A sigh escaped Kaiba’s lips. At least, despite the years before he took blockers and the weeks at a time that Gozaburo would withhold them as punishment, his breasts were small; he could probably get through the night. But, there was a chance it could make his hospital visit later more difficult. He had carefully vetted his usual doctor to make sure that they could see past gender and hormones to any problems Kaiba needed addressing, but his usual doctor probably wasn’t up right now. He hoped that being assaulted and missing for four days would help focus the doctor’s attention, but people could be dense and frustrating. If Kaiba could get away with not dealing with them he would.

Kaiba wished that he had planned for this better when leaving a change of clothes in his room so that he could have a second packer on hand; however, he had never planned for this anyways. The clothes were for school nights that he spent at the office. He had assumed for example that he would at least have the shoes from the previous day, and now he would have to go with just his replacement socks or barefoot.

Before Kaiba could change into his new clothes, he needed to clean himself. he wandered over to the sink and just as he was about to turn the faucet on, he noticed something odd in the mirror.

His reflection was dark, as if he was cast under a deep shadow, not the diffuse shadows cast under fluorescent lights but like the shadow in the corner under the bed which obscured the details of anything down there. On the left side of his chest, trailing down from what he guessed was the location of his heart was the darkest, and there the shade roiled like the clouds in his dream. His eyes, meanwhile, radiated a soft pale glow. The oddest part was that only his reflection was effected; the mirror showed the rest of the room as it should be.

He stared at the mirror, then down at himself.

Kaiba couldn’t say he looked how he should. His whole body was a sickly pale, except his feet which had a ring of off pink around the soles. And, on top of that, he was filthy. Goop dripped down his front, where his wet shirt had stuck to his skin. He could still feel his hair cling to the right side of his face, while the rest was knotted and messed to oblivion. No, he looked absolutely horrible, barely human. But, there was nothing on his chest, and his skin was directly touched by the fluorescent light above.

He closed his eyes, counted to five, and then opened them. His reflection hadn’t changed.

“That...” As he opened his mouth he noticed another problem with his reflection: canines that were longer and sharper than they should be. He passed his tongue over his teeth. They were the right length; they were normal. “That isn’t real,” Kaiba muttered to himself.

He’d certainly had stranger hallucinations. His hallucinations were rarely pleasant, so clearly they’d draw from a nightmare, myth, and a glimpse of his attacker. And, the fact that he was still recovering from an attack meant that he shouldn’t be surprised his brain was acting up. Best to ignore it.

Sighing, he dunked his head under the sink and let it run. The process was awkward. He bumped his head against the sink twice, and he accidentally pulled his own hair as his fingers caught on tangles. But, there was also relief as the smells from his hair started disappearing, and though Kaiba could not see the bottom of the sink bowl from this angle, he could imagine swirls of brown liquid pouring and of his hair and spiraling down the drain. He would clearly need to shower again when he got home. There was no way that this would be enough, but it was a start.

Kaiba then grabbed a mound of paper towels from the dispenser and finished cleaning. He pushed off the film from his skin, along with quite a few dead skin cells. He dug under his fingernails to get the last pieces of trash. He rubbed the blood off of the back of his hand to reveal pristine skin.

With each paper towel tossed in the trash can, Kaiba could feel the air become crisper. When he was done, he hazarded half a breath that, upon discovering its clarity, deepened to the point where he could taste the air. Kaiba found himself moving his head, testing how the air and odors shifted.

The air, for the most part, was sanitized, and solution still hung in the air. Different fumes wafted up from the floor, countertop, and mirror, but they all stung slightly. Especially the fumes from the countertop. Meanwhile, even just the smell of the soap was slippery, mostly flavorless except for a hint of vanilla. For the most part, the odors of the bathroom had been dealt with by the cleaning crew, but they hadn’t quite managed to get everything, since a faint trace of piss emanated from the far stall. Though he was fortunate to have his old clothes off him, they hadn’t stopped stinking either. Finally, he could swear he could smell Jun Liu standing guard outside the bathroom door. Old and starting to fail but still competent and powerful.

It was a lot to process. A lot to take in. Focusing too hard on it made his head hurt. Like his mind was being pummeled with detail after detail. Eventually, he was forced to lose focus and let his mind wander between the smells, strangely finding himself drawn towards those smells- even the less pleasant ones- connected with people.

However, it also felt natural. That some of the details were important, a part of a puzzle with something waiting for him at the end. Something for him to take. Like that was what he was supposed to do now.

What a ridiculous thought.

He turned his attention back to the task at hand and gathered the change of clothes that Arnold had brought down. Putting on the uniform, he mused on how none of this would have happened if he hadn’t decided to attend one of Domino’s public high schools.

In his mind, Kaiba didn’t have any reason to actually be there; he had learned nearly all of the material from Gozaburo’s tutors anyways. However, the Big Five and basically anyone else he encountered at the company had insisted that as a minor he continue his education. Even Kisara and Isono had pushed the idea, though at least they did so gently.

Still, everyone said that it would look bad for the company if he wasn’t in school. Running a major company was not something one could do as a hobby, Kaiba had retorted, so it wouldn’t it look worse if he were busy with homework. But, no, they had reminded him, how it looked didn’t actually depend on what he could and could not do, and as a minor, it would look bad regardless. Everyone would assume until proven otherwise he wasn’t taking it seriously. A minor in school with good grades was an excellent student; a minor, especially one with such a dazzling future, out of school- no matter the reason- was presumed truant. If it was a lower job and he actually needed the money, the truancy may have been justified, but that wasn’t his situation and that wasn’t how people saw it.

So, here, why not continue with the tutor from before? You know, the one who worked you like a mule with barely a moment to catch your breath. Or look at this prestigious college prep school in Europe? Even if you completed your homework with time to spare, good luck getting back to corporate headquarters. Kaiba never said this out loud but half suspected that the Big Five had suggested it to keep him busy and out of their hair.

Kaiba did not trust the Big Five one bit. They were simultaneously too loyal and not loyal enough. Hungry for power, they had easily turned on Gozaburo, the man who had brought them to the position and esteem they had now, but they also were still married to Gozaburo’s vision. Under them, the company would be the same war machine it had been under Gozaburo with a few cosmetic changes like taking marginally different projects with marginally different results. They didn’t want to change the ship or even change direction; they just wanted to be the ones at the helm, and unfortunately, Kaiba had already decided to change course towards games: the bloodless battles, where the victor could claim the spoils and the loser suffer defeat without physical injury. Kaiba knew they would probably turn on him if not closely watched. He could not afford to be distracted by schoolwork.

It was Mokuba’s insistence on going to public school that inspired the compromise.

Of course, he would continue his education. However, the school would be a short drive from the office. He may be bored out of his mind in class, but that gave him time to think about more important things. Kaiba couldn’t count the number of times he’d worked on his own projects right in front of the teacher, and so long as he wasn’t disruptive, did his work, and answered the teacher’s questions, the teachers learned not to care, or at least not to care too much.

This seemed to satisfy all parties involved, though some more than others. Kisara and Mokuba seemed the most pleased, and their heads seemed to fill with the bizarre notion that he might ‘get to know people his age’ and ‘make friends’, as if he could afford to frivolously waste his time on such pursuits and as if anyone was ever in this world for anyone but themselves. At the same time, the Big Five were not happy so much as cornered into a compromise, but regardless they finally stopped pressing the issue.

It had therefore been a lucky break that he had even been in the school building let alone the classroom when Yugi Mutou had mentioned the White Dragon Necklace. Well, it had seemed like a lucky break at the time.

Kaiba finished buttoning his shirt and looked at himself in the mirror. He was still hallucinating, and in fact, the shadows that obscured his skin were spilling onto his clothes. The smoke-like shadows that had been rolling out of his chest were more restrained, but the occasional wisp still poked through the fabric. It was a good thing- Kaiba conceded- that the hallucination was so blatantly impossible; the rock solid facts of the world always helped ground him. Even if he still struggled to ignore or at the very least not react to the visions, knowing they weren’t actually there was the first step.

But, however, easy this one was to deal with Kaiba never considered hallucinations a good sign. They came when he was sick, tired, and overworked. They came when he was scared that Gozaburo would lord something over him. They sometimes still came when he saw a mistake that Gozaburo would have lorded over him. They came when he failed to protect the few things he loved. They came to remind him of how powerless he was.

They came after he was attacked and left for dead. After waking up with corpses scattered around him. No, it had not been a lucky break.

The room began to bend and twist as everything that had happened came crashing down around him. People had died. He almost died. The floor appeared to crack and burst at the seems. He rubbed his neck and tried to get the image of the corpse’s ghastly lopsided stare out of his head. The walls warped further, and a fissure appeared between his feet. He closed his eyes and clutched onto the rim of the sink. He whispered, ‘This isn’t happening,’ again and again. Eventually, he opened his eyes. The room had settled down, and the floor was whole, but his reflection was still dark and wrong. He glared at his own supposedly glowing eyes.

Kaiba adjusted the shirt collar to make sure it was straight and proper. He arranged his still damp hair to look more presentable and approximate his usual cut. It was time to speak to Detective Shadi.

Kaiba went to grab the bag of dirty clothes and almost turned the door handle to leave before curiosity got the better of him. He reached down into the bag grabbed the collar of the dirty white undershirt and brought it to his nose. A quick sniff gave him all the information he needed.

It stunk. Of course, it would. But, there were smells that he wasn’t expecting. There was something sweet and rich that permeated the area of the stain, yet… it was also burnt. Burnt with a side of rotten eggs. It repulsed him but in a way that was more personal than the rest of the debris. Like he knew it had been tampered with. Garbage was supposed to stink, but this stain wasn’t supposed to smell like that. It was _his_ blood, and somebody had gone and messed it up. The ferocity of the thought scared Kaiba.

He stuffed the shirt back into the bag and opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are wondering why I did what I did with the mirror: there are multiple versions of Vampiric lore around mirrors. One is that it is the silver lining that makes vampires have no reflection. Another is that mirrors reflect souls (of which vampires supposedly do not have). I decided to go with the later, but instead of vampires lacking a soul, their soul has been affected by the curse which shows up in the mirror. So basically I just ran with it in the complete opposite direction.
> 
> Also, this chapter is mostly world building before the plot picks up more next chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it. Plus there are important seeds for later here. That and answering important questions such as what was he doing at that school anyways.


	4. Cassandras Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadi delivers two warnings: one regarding the threat Kaiba poses to others and another about a threat to Kaiba’s own life. There are enough grains of truth to keep Kaiba’s attention, but ultimately Shadi’s words turn to nonsense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Content Warnings: Referenced canonical suicide (Gozaburo’s), mentions of cissexism (Trans Broken Arm Syndrome. No incidents depicted), mentions of hallucinations, general discussions of death

Jun Liu, who had already been waiting en garde, still managed to straighten when Kaiba exited the bathroom. Meanwhile, Detective Shadi stood, unblinking, a couple yards away. He looked up when Kaiba exited the bathroom but barely moved a muscle otherwise. Kaiba turned to Jun Liu and held out the bag. “Make sure this gets to the police department in the next few days, though sooner will save both face and nose.”

Jun Liu nodded. “Do you still need me here while you talk with Detective Shadi? The detectives may still be by the crime scene, and I would like to touch base with them before they leave to aid with our own investigation. It may even be the last chance to see what happened before it all gets hidden behind red tape.” Jun Liu turned towards Detective Shadi. “I do not believe you are going to hurt him, but with him only just returned, your less than stellar reputation, and information that his life may be at stake, you can see why I may be worried about leaving.”

“I understand your concern,” Detective Shadi looked Jun Liu in the eye. “Unfortunately, what I have to say is for his eyes and ears only. Even your guard,” Detective Shadi glanced at Arnold and then regained eye contact with Jun Liu, “will have to step away while we discuss this.”

“That is not very reassuring.”

Detective Shadi shrugged. “But, it is the truth. If you need something to soothe your mind, your boss is not in immediate danger. However, if he is not careful, how he handles these next few days can lead to others dying even if by accident. Accident or not, with the chance to have forewarning and the chance to avoid it, those deaths would be on him. Still, your boss has yet to answer your question, and your presence is ultimately up to him.”

Kaiba considered it for a moment. “Others dying. Like the garbage collectors?”

“That is one possibility, yes.”

“Hmm.” Detective Shadi’s insistence on speaking alone was odd, and after the alleyway Kaiba had good reason to be wary. Somebody had tried to kill him, and somebody had killed three people. Agreeing to meet the detective, who despite being otherwise competent was not trusted by others in the department, without security present was practically inviting trouble. But, he also needed more information on who attacked him, who had created the scene he woke up to. Without knowing what happened, the fear that his attacker could come back remained. Kaiba loved a puzzle but hated a mystery, and Detective Shadi’s information had the potential to turn the situation from one to the other.

The portent of death also weighed on Kaiba’s mind. Kaiba was under no illusions that he was a good person. He had extorted, threatened, and destroyed businesses and lives, at first to protect himself and his brother but then almost out of habit. He’d promised the Big Five power to use them against Gozaburo and then tossed the promises aside when he was done. He saw what needed to be done, and he did it. If that made him ruthless then so be it.

But, the one person he would wish death on was already dead, and even then he had been horror-struck as Gozaburo had flung himself out the window. He didn’t want anyone else to die.

“Arnold can stay out of conversation range but enough within earshot of a cry for help, and knowing that the suspicion would then fall on him should provide enough of a deterrent to prevent Detective Shadi from trying anything. You may leave. Give Arnold the instructions on the way out. Also, tell him to make sure to get a ride ready; I would like to be able to leave as soon as this discussion is over.”

Jun Liu shot Kaiba a worried- or was it concerned?- glance before ‘yes-sir’ing and heading out. Relief flashed over the detective’s face. “So, are you ready to talk?”

“I am at the very least curious about what you have to say. If you want more privacy, we can move to the closer to the elevators.” Kaiba gestured behind him. The Kaiba Corp lobby had a fairly open floor plan with a few rooms and utilities scattered around the edges. Only the cluster elevators in the center would block someone’s line of sight. “If that is not enough, we could always head to my office, but I would rather get this done and over with here.”

Detective Shadi thought the options over. “By the elevators should be fine, so long as we remain quiet. Walls provide a false sense of protection anyway.”

Kaiba gave a short hum in affirmation. As they walked towards the elevator shafts, something about Detective Shadi- or at least his image- seemed to quiver, and when they finally reached their destination, he turned towards Kaiba and put a finger to his lips. Kaiba raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, Detective Shadi’s form lightly glowed before it began to shift and wobble. Then, a ripple started at the top of his form and rolled downward. It passed over his turban, earrings, and skin with no effect, but passing over his eyes, Kaiba saw his golden brown irises widen and his pupils disappear. Detective Shadi’s eyeliner also thickened, making his already intense stare all the more formidable. Once it hit his suit, the clothes began to unfurl into a set of tan robes with a white shawl draped over his shoulders like a cape.

Kaiba jumped backwards with a yelp. What the ever loving fuck? Suddenly the warning bells that had been off since he had failed to fully sense the man turned into sirens. Detective Shadi reached out towards him, but Kaiba stepped back. He felt his lips pull back, and something twitched in his mouth.

Detective Shadi pulled his hand back and put a finger to his lips again, before moving his hand straight through the wall. He then spoke softly, “I am not a threat, but the world is more complicated than you think.”

Kaiba blinked. Something clicked into place. In fact, suddenly Detective Shadi’s lack of presence made complete sense. He began to relax, and the strange sensation in his mouth pulled back. “I already think the world is quite complicated but not in the way you are implying.” Kaiba glanced around the room searching for the telltale flashing lights of a projector. “Did the technicians put you up to this?”

“The technicians?” Detective Shadi for the first time that night looked confused. “I can assure you that no one else has anything to do with this.”

Kaiba let out a small laugh. “Detective Shadi-”

“Shadi is fine.”

“Shadi, do not play games with me.” He let out another laugh. “You are in the building of the company that invented holographic technology with the person who developed most of its key functions. What did you think would happen? That I wouldn’t figure it out? The ability to record and respond in real time is fairly impressive, but there is literally no other plausible explanation.”

Shadi seemed to let out a sigh, though Kaiba understandably couldn’t hear the air exit his mouth. “I was hoping that it might get you to expand your definition of plausible, and it does often get people to think. You can check that I have not communicated with your technicians and, if there are any holographic projectors in this room, you will not find my image in any of their data banks. I am not a hologram.”

Kaiba reached out and passed his hand through Shadi’s form. The air there was surprisingly cool to the touch. Considering the amount of energy needed to produce a convincing image, holograms released plenty of residual heat. He narrowed his eyes. No better explanation presented itself. “And, what would you have me believe then?”

“What if…” Shadi paused a moment to consider his words carefully. “What if I were to say that there were things beyond the scientific. Things like magic, ghosts, and dragons. Things like vampires.”

“Well, it is a good thing you aren’t saying that,” Kaiba smirked, “because I would say that we were done talking, and I would leave so that you wouldn’t be able to waste any more of my time. If you believe in that superstitious nonsense, then maybe you aren’t as competent as I thought.”

Shadi slowly blinked. He opened his mouth then closed it. He waited a moment before finally speaking. “I knew you were in denial when you reported the crime, but this seems like a bit much. Still, we have other things to talk about, the most important of which being your upcoming hospital visit. Before I let you go there, I need to ask: are you hungry?”

Kaiba was about to retort that the hospital and his stomach had nothing to do with each other, when he realized that he should be hungry but he wasn’t. In fact, he felt quite full. “No, but I haven’t ea-” A memory cut him off mid-word. The taste. When he woke up there had been such a delicious, pleasant taste in mouth, which in the terror that followed he had completely forgotten about. He reached a hand up and touched his lips, and his eyelids fluttered for a moment. His mouth was watering at the mere memory. He swallowed his spit before correcting, “I don’t remember eating anything.” Questions buzzed in his brain. What had he eaten? How had he gotten a hold of it while by the dumpster? How had he forgotten? “Something must be wrong.”

“That actually is the answer I was hoping for, and I honestly didn’t expect anything else. I haven’t seen a scene like that in quite some time, but with va- people like you it can be hard to tell. There doesn’t appear to be a limit on how much you can eat, just after a certain point you don’t have to.” Shadi paused for a moment, and Kaiba narrowed his eyes. What the fuck was he talking about? Unfortunately, Shadi started talking again before Kaiba could vocalize his thoughts. “That, however, is neither here nor there. I ask because I have a contact in the hospital who would be willing to see you. She is a good person, and I have promised her not to send any trouble her way.”

“Wait. Back up. You said you were expecting that answer. That answer disturbs me, and I was the one who gave it.” Kaiba struggled to keep his voice down, but he was realizing why Shadi had asked the meeting to be private. He wouldn't have been able to stand random strangers hearing his own uncertainty. He only tolerated revealing it to Shadi because Shadi might have answers.

Shadi looked Kaiba in the eyes. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to tell me the truth. You seem to have some idea about what is going on. Out with it.”

Shadi rolled his eyes. “The truth is irrelevant if you won’t believe it, though I promise you that I will not lie. Could you ask a more specific question?”

Kaiba let an exasperated sigh slip between his lips and then grit his teeth. What would it take to get a clear-cut answer from this man? “Oh, let’s see. Where should I start? Do you have any idea what that taste was? Why I don’t remember eating? Oh, god...” Another realization dawned on him. “I don’t even remember getting out of the dumpster…”

“For someone who has no idea what’s going on, you certainly cut straight to the heart of the situation, though the heart is the part your most likely to shut out. But, I will attempt to answer.” Shadi paused to think, and Kaiba waited still grinding his teeth together. “I will start with why you don’t remember because while it is definitely not simpler, it is easier. You don’t remember because I’m not entirely certain you were entirely there. Your body was certainly present, but it was guided by an instinct, darkness, hunger so desperate it didn’t want conscious thought getting in the way-”

At this point, Kaiba couldn’t help himself. “Are you telling me what happened or trying to write a bad horror novel because at this point its hard to tell.”

The comment elicited a half a laugh out of Shadi. “Given your stubbornness, I can see why you might think that, but if this were fiction I can assure you that I would not be the one writing it. I am merely a messenger. One that hopes to tip the course of events, but you ultimately have control over where your story leads. Plus, are you denying that after spending four days in a dumpster, you would be hungry?”

“No,” Kaiba conceded, looking away. In fact, he remembered being absolutely ravenous, his hunger pains driven fiercer by the sound that shouldn’t exist, but he wasn’t going to give Shadi the satisfaction of saying that out loud. “Continue.”

“Jokes aside, consider my first warning: the hunger will come back. I cannot tell you how soon, but judging by the strength of the one who attacked you, I cannot say that you have long. When it comes back, it will start small and grow. It has already started to mess with your instincts, but it will try to make its desires yours.” As Shadi spoke, Kaiba rolled his eyes. The only reason he bit back a comment was that he remembered how strongly his hunger had pulled at his mind. “To call the hunger evil would be to give it a sense of morality that I do not think it has, but it will make you a danger to those around you, and, as I have said, you are responsible for your actions. You will have to find some resolution to this, and I do not have any clear-cut solutions to provide you. But, I believe someone with your resources and wit can figure something out.”

“You know I’d be able to take you more seriously if you weren’t describing a normal bodily process as if it were a malevolent spirit. I have worked through hunger before, and I can still eat.”

“This is not the hunger you are used to, and I wish I could say that simply ignoring it or pushing through it was the answer. It is not. If it grows too strong, it can and it will push you out of the way to fulfill its goals. You will also find that eating may be a bit more complicated.”

“Oooo, ominous,” Kaiba said waving his fingers through the air. “So, what about my first question?”

Shadi frowned. “There is still so much I have to tell you first, and this is definitely the harder of the two. I can’t have you storming off before I am done. I have decided to tell you that last. I understand that you think you want to know, but the truth has been staring you in the face, and you refuse to acknowledge it. So, let me give you my second warning.”

“I have listened to everything reasonable you’ve said,” Kaiba scowled. “I’ve even listened to some of the unreasonable things you’ve said. Tell me.”

“No. I will but not yet. Are you done throwing a fit?” Kaiba’s jaw dropped; he wasn’t throwing a fit. He just wanted answers. But, for once he did not have a snappy retort, and he simply glared. “Good. Because my next warning regards your own life.”

Kaiba perked up. “Does it have to do with the person who attacked me?”

“I see why you would be concerned about that, but that situation has been dealt with.”

“Dealt with how?” Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Detectives Wasseem and Ito certainly hadn’t had any idea about who had attacked him, and they had read his file. Suddenly their suspicions seemed a bit more well-founded. “I’m getting the sense that it wasn’t through entirely legal means.”

“It is best to keep human institutions out of these affairs, and in fact, my work with the department is a matter of convenience for that end. Instead, the owner of the King’s Pendant has been notified and has taken action. Your attacker will be kept on a far tighter leash.” Shadi’s expression then hardened, and his voice somehow managed to turn more grim, “No, this concerns those who would strike you down not for what you have done but for what you are. Fortunately, you are not yet on their radar, and it would be better for you to keep it that way.”

“I’ve disgruntled many people, but the boy in the alleyway was the first attempt on my life,” Kaiba shrugged, “Why would they start caring now?” Despite his outward nonchalance, the threat against his own life did disturb him, especially so soon after he had already been attacked. The only question was whether the threat was real.

Shadi shook his head. “You misunderstand. They only care about what you are, not about what you were, and you have changed. And, do not underestimate them. They have taken on beasts far more dangerous than a handful of security guards, and even if you brought a few of them down with you, you are young and they are trained. You would lose. And, supposing that you didn’t, there are plenty in your company and this city who would not fare well should these people’s gaze fall in their direction.”

“You seem to know a lot about these murderers.” Shadi looked at the ground, and his form appeared to deflate. Hnn... Interesting. “Would there happen to be a reason for that?”

A few seconds passed before Shadi looked Kaiba directly in the eye and held the contact for a couple more moments. “I was, at one point, one of those people. So, believe me when I say that they are dangerous.”

“Fine.” Kaiba found it hard to believe there was a cabal of assassins ready to kill him because he’d felt a little weird since waking up, but Shadi certainly believed it. The regret in Shadi’s voice had been palpable, and considering how casually the man had talked about the scene in the parking garage, Kaiba did not take that regret lightly. “You said the best way to deal with these people was to stay off their radar. How would you suggest I do that?”

“Well, the simplest way would be to hide the changes and not to cause any undo instances, but unfortunately, your ignorance has caused you to fail on both accounts, and now we are stuck trying to clean up your mess.” A disapproving expression cast over Shadi’s face. “The hospital visit right now is the more pressing problem and where you could potentially mess things up even more. We are lucky that I have a contact who has agreed to help. She works at Memorial, which is a bit farther away than the Domino University Hospital, but it is worth the trip if we are going to do things right.”

“I presume this is the contact you mentioned earlier. The one you thought I’d bring trouble to if I were hungry.” Kaiba wrung his hands together. While he was ready to admit, at least to himself, that the hunger he’d experienced scared him, he had yet to see how it affected others.

Shadi nodded. “That is the one. She isn’t as embroiled in all this as you or I, and in fact, she would rather not become embroiled in any of it. She is placing a lot of trust in me by agreeing to this, and I would rather the trust not be misplaced.”

“And, why, pray tell,” Kaiba asked gesturing outward, “do I need to go to this contact of yours if she’s halfway across the city and all I’d bring her is trouble? Wouldn’t it be easier for both of us if I just went to the nearest emergency room, got checked over, and left for home? You said yourself that I should avoid any unnecessary trouble.” Kaiba didn’t honestly give a shit about this possibly non-existent ‘trouble’, but he was beginning to find that talking with Shadi was like an elaborate chess game. In order to move forward and make progress towards getting home, in order to potentially uncover the grains of truth Shadi possessed, he would have to sacrifice some points and pieces.

“Heaven forbid.” Shadi immediately put his fingertips together and glanced upward. “That would be the quickest way to scare the doctors, cause a commotion, and attract the exact people I’m warning you about.”

“I’m sure the doctors can handle a simple check-up. It’s not like people haven’t been assaulted in this city before.” As he spoke the words, Kaiba had no doubt that Shadi would disagree; Shadi saw danger in every corner of this situation. Still, Kaiba couldn’t help but flaunt the absurdity of everything as he attempted to uncover which dangers were real. “Why wouldn’t these trained medical professionals be able to handle a case like mine?”

Shadi opened his mouth as if he were about to scream out a proclamation, but before the words could exit his mouth he closed it again. He glared at Kaiba before finally speaking, “Yes, people have been assaulted in this city before, and some here have likely been assaulted in the way that you have as well. But, when people survive such assaults it is usually because their attacker willed it, and when they wake up they have somebody to tell them why what your suggesting is such a horrifically bad idea. Anyone can tell that you’re paler than you should be, and Detective Wasseem immediately noticed you weren’t giving off the right amount of body heat. You can’t possibly think the doctors won’t notice your lack of pulse-”

“Of course I have a pulse. I’m alive,” Kaiba snapped.

“Not entirely,” Shadi immediately responded. “And, if you think that my family or anyone like them has one iota of respect for patient confidentiality in cases like yours, you are sadly mistaken. In my time, we kept our ear to the ground for the slightest trace of people like you, people we deemed dangerous, and I have absolutely no doubt that they continue to do so. And, despite the myths, we weren’t trapped in the past. In recent years, they likely have added a digital component to cast their net even wider, so we can’t afford even leaving a trace there. There are risks that I do not want to take.”

Kaiba had taken a few steps back from Shadi, his mind still reeling from Shadi’s earlier comment. Of course, he was alive. He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t alive. Clearly, whatever veneer of sensibility Shadi had was starting to crumble. Maybe Shadi’s head was just swimming with conspiracy theories and there was no threat against his life.

But, a voice at the back of Kaiba’s head reminded him that whether or not Shadi was right about this, Shadi had been right about other things. Shadi knew about the hunger that had ripped through his brain. Shadi knew that he had eaten… something. Shadi was the first to bring up that something was wrong with him. Hell, other details from Shadi’s story lined up. The King’s Pendant probably referenced he gaudy pyramid Yugi had taken to wearing around his neck, and his attacker’s words, ‘my partner would not approve’ echoed through Kaiba’s mind. How exactly Yugi could keep that boy on any sort of leash was beyond Kaiba’s imagination, but the two did seem connected. No, as much as he wanted to totally dismiss Shadi’s ramblings, he couldn’t.

Hoping to prove Shadi wrong, Kaiba put his thumb against his wrist. He felt nothing. A frown creased his face, and he moved his thumb to another position. Still nothing. Tch. Maybe he was just bad at this.

“You aren’t going to find anything.”

Kaiba shot Shadi a glare and moved his thumb again. “Shut up... It’s probably just weak.”

Shadi let out another breathless sigh. “Will you at least visit my contact? Her name is Dr. Ena Uramoto.”

It would be physically impossible for him not to have a pulse; he could hardly count this something Shadi got right. But, it did give him pause. “Fine. But, she better not have any problems with…” Kaiba didn’t want to come out to this stranger, but while Shadi was concerned about him bringing the doctor trouble, he needed to know that it wouldn’t be the other way around. He needed to make sure the doctor would remain objective, actually tell him if he was ok, and help him if he wasn’t.

Shadi stared at him expectantly. Kaiba glanced down. There was a chance Shadi had already noticed. He certainly hadn’t mentioned anything, and Kaiba couldn’t tell what sort of sign that was. “Gender. Hormones... Doctors tend to get a bit distracted.”

Shadi blinked and considered it. “That hasn’t been an issue in the past, but it has never come up, and things would be better if this went as smoothly as possible. I could pass a message before you get there.”

Well, that went better than expected. Still, if he didn’t know- and frankly Kaiba understood that he had had no previous reason to know- it made deciding what to do moving forward. He would rather be the one to tell her, to tell anyone, but at the same time, something to keep the doctor in line would be nice…

“I am not sure what would help in this situation, but I am fully capable of being cryptic.”

Kaiba laughed. Well, that certainly was true. “Tell her to focus on the situation at hand and to remember what is actually relevant. And, you better not tell anyone about this.”

Shadi shrugged, “I don’t see how its anyone’s business. There are more important things in the world to worry about.” Those were some of the truest words Shadi had uttered all evening.

“Now that that’s out of the way, what can she do that the rest of the medical community can’t?”

“Nothing,” Shadi plainly stated, “except agree to falsify your records.”

That certainly wasn’t the answer Kaiba was expecting; with the way Shadi had been talking this woman up, Kaiba had hoped she would be able to do something… more. “So, I won’t be able to find out whats wrong with me? They won’t be able to fix it?”

“The medical community certainly wouldn’t be able to help you,” Shadi shook his head, “and the only thing that can help is opening your mind and listening. Listen to what I’m telling you. Listen to your body and what it needs but stop yourself from following through with what it wants. The more you listen, and I mean actually listen and not judge what you are hearing based on preconceptions, the more obvious what is happening will become. And, you will see that there is no going back. What is happening to you is one of the open secrets of the world, mixed with baseless rumor but the kernel holds true. You should be able to piece it together. Going to the hospital to figure that out would be pointless.”

Wonderful advice from somebody who clearly never had to doubt their senses. Letting go of preconceptions. Ha. That was letting go of reality. But, he would never let a stranger like Shadi know that.

Another worry began to tug at his mind, and he fiddled with the edge of his sleeve. The idea that whatever was happening wouldn’t go away and he wouldn’t be able to seek help for other reasons bothered him. He would eventually need another testosterone prescription, and it was bad enough that he missed the past four days. But, he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He had already used the resources at his disposal to start a year earlier than recommended; he could figure this out in time. Now, he would focus on present concerns, “Why even bother then. I’d be more than happy to head directly home. It’s been a long enough night.”

“The promise of the hospital record was the only thing that got the detectives to leave. I mentioned that truthful hospital records would attract the wrong sort of attention. So will a detailed investigation of your little crime scene. I will try to clean that mess up, to muddy the waters, cause some things to be misplaced, but with the crime already on official record, I won’t be able to completely erase it. They still might try to get a warrant for that information, and their suspicion at not finding anything would chafe at my charms.”

“And, what an abundance of those you have,” Kaiba laughed. Shadi was certainly an intriguing fellow but he was far too stoic to be labeled charming. Kaiba supposed that it would be a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, but at least he knew people hated him. “Still, I know you said your work with the department was out of convenience, but aren’t you supposed to figure out who murdered those people, help solve the case and catch the culprit. I’d prefer that myself”

Shadi did not respond for a long moment. “Are you sure about that? You won't like the answer.”

“So you already know what happened? Now, why isn’t that surprising anymore?” Kaiba rolled his eyes. What could be worse than being on the hit list of a ridiculously strong homicidal boy and potentially being a target for a group of trained killers just for somehow surviving? He may not like the answer, but it's not like things could get much worse. He uneasily leaned away from Shadi. No, the situation was bad enough as was. “Yes, I want to know who did it, and for that matter, I want to know how you solved it so quickly, considering it just happened, and the other detectives seemed quite confused.”

“It's not exactly subtle, so saying that one could solve it would be a bit of an overstatement. Anybody who has any idea how the world works would know what happened there. But, I suppose there is no point in delaying any longer; it is time for me to tell you.” Shadi took a few steps forward, closing the gap that Kaiba had widened. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” Kaiba gestured wildly outward in frustration, and his hand passed through the cool air where Shadi stood. “I said yes already.”

Shadi again paused for a bit. “You asked earlier what you ate. Well, the remains of your meal would have been scattered around you when you woke up.” What was he talking about? The only food that had been in the area was rotting in the garbage. “In fact, the hunger would have given you back control not too long after it had its fill, so it is likely you would have been facing the last thing you ate from.” No, the thing he had been facing was a dead body. “Considering one of them had more of… your new food visible, I can guess which one it was you ate last.” Kaiba’s face contorted in confusion. Shadi wasn’t making any sense or rather less sense than usual. Shadi looked at him and shook his head. “What did you think the holes were for? One set to puncture down to the food, another to maintain grip while you fed-”

“No!” Kaiba yelled, his voice echoing throughout the lobby. Arnold’s footsteps started to approach. “That’s impossible. Things like that don’t exist. I could never...”

Shadi pursed his lips. “That’s the truth, and its a truth you need to accept. Now are you going to call off your dog, or do we have to end this conversation here?”

“I don’t see any reason to continue it with you spouting this nonsense.” Kaiba scowled. He backed away from Shadi.

“Hence, me saving this for last.” Shadi’s form started to shift and bend, before specks started floating away like sand caught on the wind. His body- the hologram depicting his body- started to disintegrate. “My family would believe you too dangerous to exist. Please do not prove them right.” After finishing those words the pace of the disintegration quickened and by the time Arnold and his tuh-thub turned the corner, Shadi was gone.

“Oh, it seems like you’re alright.” Arnold looked at Kaiba then around like a lost puppy. “Where’s the creepy guy?”

Kaiba stared at the space where he had seen Shadi a moment before. “Gone, though I don’t think he was ever really here. Tell Jun Liu when he gets back to check to see if anyone tampered with the holographic projector systems.”

“Huh, that would be weird,” Arnold mused. “I mean, why go through all that trouble? What could they possibly accomplish? Showing something cool could at least be done for its own sake, but this?”

Kaiba shot Arnold a glare and started walking towards the main lobby. He did not want to engage in small talk with anyone let alone with a low-level security guard. As he passed by, he caught a whiff of Arnold’s scent. He had before caught that the security guard was healthy, but now he could sense other overtones. There was something almost sore about the smell as if Arnold pushed himself too far, but it also reminded Kaiba of new growth and life. It drew him in for a moment, but then Kaiba shook his head. Focus. “Not as weird as half the nonsense that came out of his mouth. Is the driver ready to go?”

“Yes. He’s waiting over there.” Arnold gestured around the pillar of elevators to the main lobby.

When Kaiba rounded the corner though, he did not see his usual driver. “Isono, you do realize I have people I pay specifically to drive me places?”

That elicited a small chuckle, but it wasn’t fullhearted. “Yes, but you’ve been missing for some time, and I gave specific instructions to be one of the first people contacted should you return. I hear you need to be taken to the hospital; are you ok? You do look a little sick.”

“Better than I was earlier, but… I don’t exactly feel like myself.”

Isono nodded. “Jun Liu did mention you were attacked, and that you were a bit of a mess when you came back. Its only expected that you wouldn’t feel your best. Have you been having any of your problems?”

Isono was one of the few people who knew about his hallucinations, one of the few people he trusted not to hold them against him. Numerous times Isono had been with him and stabilized him during an attack, guided him back to reality, and helped him ignore what wouldn’t go away. “Yes. It was the worst right after my attacker knocked me out, and...” Kaiba glanced around and was glad to see that Arnold was still far away on the other side of the lobby. “I’ve been hearing things and smelling things that I shouldn’t. There was a false tremor in the bathroom, and my reflection was dark, twisted, and not right.”

Kaiba remembered the enlarged canines, the fangs, in the mirror, and he remembered Shadi’s final comments. No, it couldn’t be real. He passed his tongue across his teeth. It wasn’t real.

Meanwhile, Isono nodded and closed his eyes for a long moment before opening them, and then Kaiba closed his eyes in an extended blink as well. The action was something small that Isono had come up with to remind Kaiba that he was there, especially because Kaiba did not like being touched during normal times let alone during the middle of a brainweird episode. Kaiba would return the gesture to acknowledge receiving it. During those seconds of darkness, Kaiba focused on the rhythmic thumping in Isono’s chest. He knew he shouldn’t be hearing it, but it comforted him anyways.

“Do you want to say what you have been hearing and smelling?”

Kaiba scoffed. “It doesn’t deserve the words it would take to acknowledge it.”

Isono hummed in affirmation and gestured at the large glass doors behind him. “Shall we go then? We will have time to discuss business and family on the way there.” Isono passed him the reports that Arnold had brought down from his office.

“We will have plenty of time because we are headed to the Memorial Clinic,” Isono shot Kaiba a questioning gaze as they both started to exit the building. “One of the detectives suggested I see somebody there, and while I am not inclined to believe him on everything, he made a few convincing arguments.” Shadi was a superstitious crackpot, but he was at least a superstitious crackpot trying to help. Kaiba got the firm impression that he came from a whole family of hostile superstitious crackpots that were willing to act on their beliefs. So soon after being attacked by someone else, Kaiba decided to play it cautious.

As he walked toward the car parked outside, his thumb passed over the inside of his wrist.

They talked about many things on the way to the hospital. Mokuba had been given the past two days off of school because of Kaiba’s disappearance, and though his brother had been attempting to hold it together, Isono could see that the waiting was getting to him. Stock prices had taken an immediate hit upon the announcement of Kaiba’s disappearance, which was making the Big Five, who owned the majority of the stock not already in Kaiba’s hands, antsy. The company had, however, been able to survive the past few days, the day to day operations carrying on without him. A few key projects had made progress and wanted his input, though Isono assured that the projects could wait until everything else settled.

Kaiba’s mind drifted, and he asked about the what had happened with one of the previously completed projects. Isono still hadn’t heard news of Industrial Illusions releasing a new game, though they had recently ordered the installation a large batch of the related hardware. A pity. The demo his team had worked with had actually been quite intriguing.

When they reached the hospital, Isono fiddled with the rearview mirror, and Kaiba saw his still horrible reflection shift and jiggle with the movement. “Is something wrong?”

Isono looked back at him for a moment before finally leaving the mirror be. “Nothing, sir. It’s probably just a trick of the light.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me four chapters but finally someone has uttered the v-word (Kaiba you know what he’s talking about, you’ve even recognized the similarity before. You are allowed to put the word to the thought.) 
> 
> Also, I am not planning on having a Trans Broken Arm Syndrome thing appear during the hospital visit. Dealing with that would be too real, and in any case, as I am not transitioning. I haven’t had to deal as much with that sort of thing myself, and I do not feel like I would do the topic justice. However, I did think it was something important enough to acknowledge as something that Kaiba would be worried about and would want to take precautions against.
> 
> That said, Kaiba is going to find that there are other reasons now why hospital visits could go wrong.
> 
> I mention Kaiba starting hormones early since when looking up when hormones could be started I got a lot of info that at least in the US the recommended age is 16… which is around Kaiba’s age now (apparently zombiekaiba has a good post on ages here, and I am going primarily with anime conventions. Things are a little bit… out of order to make room for what I want to do, but I envision this happening at the start of 11th grade (so its April) and Kaiba is thus 16 years old and 6 months. [Revision: I changed my mind about the time of year for this, so it is January and Kaiba is 16 years and 3 months old]
> 
> And that just got to me thinking about Kaiba’s relation to hormones, and I realized that 1) when he knows he wants something (and even when he doesn’t) he can be quite impatient. Methodical, but impatient, so he definitely would not like being told that he had to wait for something that he knew he wanted, especially with eveyrone else undergoing puberty without him. He would find that entirely unacceptable. I don’t blame him. 2) He would have the resources to do something about it. That is going to be touched on in the next chapter in an interesting way.
> 
> Finally, the idea of hunters is not going to be picked up soon (beyond maybe you should keep this under wraps), but I do have an idea of how it would be picked up again if this continued onto the fifth arc. I’m not sure if I’ll get there [that is a lot of story], but it does fit into things more broadly.
> 
> Again, always feel free to tell me if I need more content warnings.


	5. Cassandras Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a hospital visit that goes according to neither Kaiba’s, the doctor’s, nor Shadi’s expectations, Kaiba finally makes it back to the manor. In both events, listening or not bears consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a very serious writer with very serious plot points /s
> 
> Chapter Warnings: Body horror, hallucinations, hospital scene, allusions to cissexism, and near character death in the chapter (though it doesn't come to pass.)

Almost an hour into his visit, the final drop of blood slid from the blood bag down the tube and into Kaiba’s arm. The sweet overtones of the aroma wafting up from the inside of his elbow disappeared leaving only sour scents lingering in the air. The pink veins leading up his arm started to retreat and shadows took their place. A tendril of darkness left his arm through the needle and traveled up the tube, moving along the thin film of blood coating the inside of the plastic.

Seto Kaiba did not notice most of these details; he was too busy staring absentmindedly at the ceiling. His pupils felt like they were the size of saucer plates, and sparklers were going off in his brain.

“Well, that went quick.” Kaiba rolled his head to look at Dr. Uramoto, who was rubbing her arm as she spoke. “I was under the impression that it normally took longer than this, but then again you aren’t exactly normal.”

Kaiba rolled his eyes. “Not many people my age are CEOs. If you mean anything else… I don’t know what you’r talking about.” He turned his head away as if to suddenly find the poster on the hospital wall very interesting. Of course, he knew exactly what she was talking about; he just didn’t believe it. While his hormones did not appear to bother her, Dr. Uramoto had revealed herself to be fairly superstitious, and part way through the blood transfusion, the superstitious prattle had increased tenfold. Kaiba had decided to blame Shadi.

“I’m not paid enough for this.” Dr. Uramoto let out a heavy sigh. She then mumbled softly to herself, “Though I guess it’s not your fault you couldn’t see yourself. I wonder if mirrors even would still work.”

“The mirrors aren’t broken, only my brain,” Kaiba said continuing to face the wall, or at least tried to say that since the word ‘broken’ came out more like ‘borken.’ He then realized what he said out loud and regret hit him like a brick. To admit that to a stranger… usually he thought things through a bit more. He curled further into the hospital bed. “Oops.”

Dr. Uramoto walked around the hospital bed to stand in front of Kaiba, and he waited for her to make some remark about his comment. Instead she said something else, “Are you going to let me take that thing out of your arm or are you going to try to bite my head off again?”

“I didn’t mean to,” Kaiba mumbled, and indeed he hadn’t.

He had mentioned something about the area around the needle starting to tingle, and Dr. Uramoto had then said she was worried about a possible allergic reaction. However, as she reached over him to take the needle out, he panicked. It felt good. No, it was good. He needed it. So, before he thought anything through, he grabbed her arm and barred his teeth. Don’t. Looking back, barring his teeth didn’t make much sense, but at the time the action felt natural and right. It wasn’t until after she flinched away and yelped that he realized what he had done and let go. Glancing down at her arm, Kaiba noted that the spot where he had grabbed her was still red.

“It doesn’t matter what you meant to do. You did it. Now, I need to know whether you are going to do that again. Do I need to bring in security?”

Kaiba shook his head before looking up at the blood bag. It was empty, and the urgency was gone. “Could… I have more?”

Dr. Uramoto shook her head, “After seeing what that first bag did to you, no.”

“But… but…” Kaiba sputtered, “I’m in shock.” That is apparently what Shadi had told Dr. Uramoto to write in his record, and after she checked his vitals, she offered no better explanation. His blood pressure was abysmally low, his heartbeat impossible to find, and his body sat at room temperature. Dr. Uramoto had had no better luck finding a pulse than he had.

“The diagnosis has changed, and even if it hadn’t, you’re as high as a kite, and your arm looks like something out of a horror movie.”

“I’m not high, but…” Kaiba held out his arm. “You see that too?”

Dr. Uramoto nodded. The veins and capillaries spreading out from the needle had become a web of black, which stood out all the more due to his ashen skin. Meanwhile, less distinguished shadows danced and writhed around the needle. Their movement almost felt joyous. As Dr. Uramoto removed the needle, a strand of his own discolored blood held on like a thread being pulled from a spool, but eventually it broke. Kaiba felt his arm tense for a moment. The moving shadows continued to pulse around the dot of sour blood that indicated where the needle had been. Dr. Uramoto cleaned the area with a band-aid ready, only to find unbroken skin.

Kaiba poked his arm. It felt good, amazing even, and fundamentally alive. He turned to look up at Dr. Uramoto with a pout. “You sure I can’t have more?”

“No.” A crease fell across her eyebrow as she glanced back down at his arm. “How can that not worry you?”

A trace of a giggle escaped Kaiba’s lips as he shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure this is happening.”

The crease turned into a full on frown, before Dr. Uramoto shook her head and let out a sigh. “Shadi wanted me to give you blood, and having seen what I’ve seen,” she gestured down at him, “I can see that he was serious about it being for home, but the hospital has a strict policy on doing the transfusions in clinic, so unless I want to lose my job, that isn’t an option. There’s not much more I can do for you unless...” She glanced him over again and considered something for a moment. Fear radiated off of her. “… that’s not worth the risk. I’ll make sure you don’t get lost on the way back. You barely look like you could find your way out the door at the moment.”

Kaiba swung his legs off of the hospital bed and sat up. “Whatever Shadi told you was a lie.” He fidgeted for a moment before grabbing the outer shirt he’d taken off for the transfusion and awkwardly jabbing his arms through the sleeves.

“He didn’t tell me much, but yeah, he lied,” Dr. Uramoto rolled her eyes. “He said he’d make sure I’d be safe, but I’ll have the bruises to remember this visit by. Though I suppose he was worried about something else, that doesn’t mean I should be grateful worse didn’t happen...” Kaiba glanced away. He didn’t want to think about what did happen let alone what Shadi thought might pass. The image of the corpses in the parking garage still flashed through his mind. He shook his head; he’d rather not be thinking at all right now. “… so, are you coming or not? I gave up a Friday night for this, and I imagine you have places you’d rather be too.”

Home. He’d rather be home. He nodded, and followed Dr. Uramoto into the hallway.

Kaiba’s nose twitched.

The whole building had smelled sanitized since he had entered it, but hospitals were places for people and therefore smelled like them. Exiting the small room and entering a common space, the layers multiplied. Kaiba took a deep breath and lost himself in them for a moment. Unlike the Kaiba Corp lobby, the aromas- for they smelled too intriguing and good to be called odors- were more varied and a number of the layers contained strange twists and turns. Even slightly off, they smelled like people, and thus smelled good. The only bad smells among them were the swirls of stress that permeated the hallway; most people did not enjoy being here.

A hand tapped his shoulder, and Kaiba looked over at Dr. Uramoto, who wore a worried, almost scared, expression and gestured for him to follow. Kaiba glared but followed. He’d simply breathed for a moment; there wasn’t anything ominous about that.

After trailing Uramoto down the halls for a bit, he caught a whiff of something distinctive – or at least more familiar. Isono. If his mind had been clearer he may have interrogated his intuition further and hated that he recognized it, but at the moment he was relieved. He was almost there, almost home. The slightest of smiles graced his face. He took a few more sniffs to confirm that it was the smell from earlier. It was, and it was close. Without half a thought he darted forward led by his nose and leaving Dr. Uramoto in his tailwind. Turning a corner and bursting through a door, Kaiba found himself in the reception room, where Isono was staring at his phone intently. The smile spread. Finally. He rushed over and got Isono’s attention by gently grabbing his arm. “Time to go.”

Isono nearly jumped, and the thumping in his chest raced. Kaiba wondered for a moment if he had done something wrong. The door behind him slammed against the wall before slowly closing. The receptionist behind the counter looked up.

“I… uh… didn’t hear you come in,” Isono stuttered, while getting out of the chair. He glanced down at where Kaiba was still holding onto his arm, at Kaiba’s chest, and then back up at Kaiba’s face. He seemed concerned. “Uh… did everything go well?”

“It went… weird,” Kaiba shrugged. The reception room door opened again, and looked over his shoulder at a very out of breath Dr. Uramoto. “I made it back.”

“Yeah… I see…” Dr. Uramoto panted. “I didn’t realize you would be so... fast in your current condition.” Fast? She was the one that was slow. Dr. Uramoto took a nervous look around the room, and Kaiba could smell twinges of relief peel off of her until her eyes landed on where he was holding onto Isono. She rubbed her own arm and looked Isono directly in the eyes. “Are you ok?”

Kaiba glared at Dr. Uramoto. Even with his mind fuzzy around the edges, he knew he hadn’t meant to grab onto her arm. That somehow without meaning to, without being in complete control of himself- which was the worse part of it really- he had hurt someone, not financially, not emotionally, but physically. But, the mere thought of hurting Isono, one of the few people who had been good to him. How dare she! His grip tightened on on Isono’s arm for a moment before he let go and simply curled his finger’s tightly around Isono’s blazer. Kaiba breathed in and listened for a moment. No, Isono was here and healthy and going to take him home.

Isono’s brow creased. “Kaiba is the one who had been assaulted and missing. I am fine. The real question is whether he is ok, and…” Isono looked Kaiba over again, “did you give him anything?”

“Uh...” Dr. Uramoto stumbled for a moment and stared at Kaiba. He continued to glare. She let out a sigh. “May I release the information?”

“Are you going to talk nonsense?” If the doctor was going to start telling Isono about vampires, he was going to lose it.

Dr. Uramoto rolled her eyes and gestured around at the receptionist and the other person waiting for an after hours appointment. “No, only what’s going on your record. You can tell people the rest on your own time, though those that spend more time with you,” she looked back at Isono, “deserve to know what they are dealing with.”

“The rest doesn’t exist,” Kaiba tugged on Isono’s sleave. “We’re going home.”

“Don’t pity me for working for him. I know who he is better than you do, and I stand by him, But,” Isono looked Kaiba in the eye with a resolution in his eyes that Kaiba did not like. Isono then spoke very calmly but firmly, “I don’t want to argue with you, but it is my duty as your assistant and legally by our agreement to make sure you are okay I know this isn’t your usual doctor, but considering everything that has happened and your current condition, I would rather hear this from the doctor herself. If you and her are having a disagreement, I will make sure you get the treatment you need.”

Kaiba rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”

Isono didn’t move. “As said, I am on your side, but I will invoke our agreement if necessary.”

“You wouldn’t. You couldn’t.” Kaiba was dumbfounded. It had been a year since Isono had last threatened to use the power the agreement gave him. In fact, there had been two previous times when Isono, put his foot down, and fortunately both times they had managed to come to a compromise. The first time had been over the issue of his schooling.

The second time had been over hormones. Not Kaiba’s decision to take them, but Kaiba’s decision to start a year earlier than recommended. Without Isono’s intervention, Kaiba would have simply bucked his doctor and used his resources to get what he wanted through less than official channels. Isono had forced him to sit down and at least consider medical supervision, and he had helped Kaiba sort through the web pages and phone calls, the bribes and visits, needed to do it. Knowing that the wrong dose could have increased his estrogen, it was probably for the best, but he hated the waiting.

Whether or not Isono actually could use his parental right to get the records, Kaiba knew Isono had to be dead serious to even mention it. And, despite how good he currently felt, Kaiba had to admit that the current situation may possibly perhaps be almost more important than the other times. He had nearly died.

“Fine,” Kaiba pouted turning back towards Dr. Uramoto. “I release the stuff on the medical record.” She said she wouldn’t talk about that bullshit, but she still believed it and somehow found ways to remind him of it. He bent down and buried his face in Isono’s sleeve. He wanted this to be over with. He wanted to be home. He wanted things to get back to normal, where people didn’t even think about the possibility of vampires or demons let alone expect him to take the ideas seriously. Where people hated him and called him scum behind his back but didn’t accuse him of actual murder. His ideas had been sharpened into weapons and sold for blood, but no one ever had thought he’d pull the trigger.

“He was in fairly severe shock when you brought him in. Its… a wonder he was even up and moving around. He did respond positively to a blood transfusion, but the sudden shift towards normal appears to have induced a wave of euphoria. You asked me if I gave him anything, but that was it. It’s a testament to the shape he was in that it could have such an effect.”

Isono let out a chuckle. “Somehow I find that very hard to believe.” Kaiba pulled away and looked at him quizically. What gave him that impression? “Sir, you have been quite a bit more out of it coming back from this appointment than you were going into hit.” He gestured at Kaiba’s still unbottoned outer shirt then to the place where Kaiba’s fingers were still tightly wrapped around Isono’s sleeve. Kaiba’s jaw dropped and he jumped back. His fingers hesitantly released the fabric and then rushed to straighten his shirt, shaking a little bit.

How had he let himself be seen like that? People could say what they want about him otherwise, but he couldn’t afford to look incompetent, weak, or out of control. And, while the contact with Isono wasn’t that bad, what if somebody got the impression that they were allowed to touch him?

Isono looked like he was trying to bite back a joke, though he managed to flatly state, “You even were smiling, actually smiling, for a moment there.” The statement was cutting precisely because Kaiba knew that Isono understood the large difference between a smile and a smirk. Kaiba rarely found an occasion worthy of the of the former, especially because the only times he put any effort towards happiness were to spite those who wanted him in pain. So, there was little that could actually make him let his guard down and enjoy himself, and the little that did exist were in brief moments with his brother.

“No, I-” Kaiba cut himself off with a pout. He didn’t actually remember smiling or not, but he had while running back to the waiting room been able to set aside how hellish the world and particularly this evening had been and focus on being able to finally being able to see his brother again. For a moment, things had seemed so very nice. To be able to forget all of what had happened… well, he was starting to see Isono’s concern. Blocking things out was easy; forgetting about them was a different matter. “She didn’t give me anything but the blood. Like she said, I’m lucky to be alive. Now, are you satisfied?”

Isono’s brow creased for a moment before he let out a sigh. “Well, so long as Dr. Uramoto says its ok for you to leave. If your condition is as bad as you say it is, I wouldn’t be surprised if you needed to stay, and I don’t want to hear that you bribed your way out of important medical care.” Kaiba rolled eyes. He couldn’t tell if Isono was joking, but that was how Isono’s humor usually worked.

“You couldn’t bribe me to keep him here.” Dr. Uramoto gave half a laugh and gave Kaiba a nervous glance. “In any case, I’ve done all I can do. More than the person who recommended him to me was probably expecting. The best thing for him would probably be to go home and rest. And… it would be best if he thought about what Shadi told him.”

“Stop it!” Kaiba rolled his eyes. “I already told you: what Shadi said was bullshit.”

“Oh, yeah,” She immediately snapped back, “Shadi can have issues with communication that we’ll have a word over next time he stops by, but I think he did try to tell me. I was just too busy hoping you were someone like me. Someone he saved. Not… the person who’d… someone he’d… someone like you. It didn’t even occur to me that he’d help you, and because of that things went less than ideally. He should have been clearer; he should have made sure I understood. But, I could have listened better. I bet he tried harder to tell you, and I know that if and when things go badly for you, it will be worse than a few bruises. And, if saying something will stop that, I have to say something.”

As she finished speaking, her hand lay on the small stick of metal she kept on a string around her neck.

Cold iron, she had said, to protect her from one of her former patients. She hadn’t said what the patient had done, and Kaiba had figured the details weren’t much of his business anyway. Yet, he still heard the way her voice shook when she spoke of him, and though he doubted the piece of metal would do any good, she clutched it tightly while she spoke of him. She said that the patient had warped her own memories of what happened and when she had tried to reach out for help, it was as if people couldn’t hear her. Even though her story had flirted with superstition and the details shrouded in mystery, Kaiba understood the feeling well.

It had been Shadi apparently who had helped her, who made sure people heard, who made sure the patient never hurt her again. She had been surprised that Kaiba had called him a detective, but she put more trust in him than she did in the police.

“He may not have saved me, but I was attacked,” Kaiba’s voice began to crack, and he put a hand over his face. “I am the victim here!”

Dr. Uramoto’s face dropped. “I suppose so. That won’t stop anything, but I suppose so.”

At this point Isono stepped forward between Kaiba and the doctor, “I have no idea what you two are talking about, and I am sorry for whatever may have happened… but I believe its time to go.” As soon as Isono uttered the words, Kaiba turned on heel and stormed out of the door. Isono followed close behind, which was fortunate because Kaiba realized that he barely knew his way out of the hospital let alone where the car was parked.

 

* * *

 

 

By the time Kaiba made it home his head had cleared, though Kaiba suspected Isono may have taken a detour to give him time to sober up. His memory of the visit- particularly the portion after the blood transfusion- was apparently rather blurry. Not gone, but worrisome enough with his usually crystal clear memory. When they got home, Isono asked him if everything was still loud, and it had taken some prodding for him to even remember that as he had thrown himself in the car he had casually remarked how so very very loud everything sounded and smelled. Like sandpaper against his skull, so many details all at once.

“It’s manageable,” Kaiba said exiting the car. “You can go. I will likely be calling a board meeting on Sunday to discuss what has happened since my disappearance, and I will contact you in the time leading up to that. There is much to do first.”

The car stayed for a moment, and Kaiba turned to look at Isono, who looked like he was considering whether or not to say something. Kaiba narrowed his eyes. Since he didn’t say it aloud, it was probably something silly about resting and recovering, and Isono would already know what the answer would be. He was home. He was shortly to be with Mokuba. That was all the rest he needed. Recovery would only come when he made sure everything was under control; the world would not tolerate and would likely punish any less.

“You can go,” Kaiba repeated, and Isono drove off.

Kaiba walked up the stairs to his porch and entered his manor. Finally. He felt a strong urge to run up the stairs to his brother’s room, to see that his brother was alive and well and to tell his brother that he was alive and well, and he would certainly do that soon. But, he wanted to make sure he looked and smelled presentable first. His brother wouldn’t judge him; his brother never had. Instead Kaiba wanted to make sure that nothing was out of place, so his brother could really see that everything was fine that he didn’t have to worry anymore. From the orphanage to life under Gozaburo to even the battle out of that hell, Mokuba had been forced to worry far too much, and Kaiba hated when he was forced to add to that for even a moment.

So, his first task was instead to shower and get whatever remained of the dumpster off of him.

Heading directly up to his private bathroom, Kaiba was distracted momentarily by the glowing eyes in his reflection. He glanced it over, noting that at least this time his reflection was as dark as the room around him. He started unbuttoning his shirt but then glanced back at the mirror and the room around him. The room was in fact quite dark. The only light in the room was trickling in from the window, from the security lamps and moon outside; the room itself looked desaturated, cast almost in greyscale. He shouldn’t be able to pick out as many details as he could, the soap dispenser on the counter, toothbrush lazily against the edge of its cup, the towels stacked neatly on the rack. He hated how comfortable he felt.

Hesitantly he reached towards the light switch.

Flipping the switch, blinked and squinted as the light blasted against his pupils, and then his eyes adjusted. The room brightened and returned to color, but his reflection did not. Damn hallucination wouldn’t go away. His face contorted at the sight, upper lip pulling back in disgust. It shouldn’t happen with every damn mirror. “You choose now to be consistent?”

But, of course that only revealed how consistent the hallucination was, since as soon as he opened his mouth, he saw the tips of two sharp fangs.

Kaiba lashed out at the sight.

The mirror cracked, splintered, and slid downward out of its frame. The back of his hand stung momentarily as a shard cracked and splintered against it. Glass scattered across the large quartz counter top, a few pieces near the far edge sliding off the far edge onto the floor next to the toilet.

Now, instead of one horrible reflection, he had several horrible reflections staring back at him from the shards. They were taunting him. He glared the reflections, and pressed his lips into a thin line. He tried not to think about how the thin dark lines on the back of hand and the sour smell wafting up from them reminded him of the cuts Jun Liu and Detective Wasseem had asked about. But, the shard’s angles also were odd enough that they caught more of the ceiling than him, and his eyes fell on the shards less naturally than the standing mirror. The cuts on his hands must be shallow, since without any pain to remind him, they were easy to ignore. As much as he knew it ultimately solved nothing, it was better.

He scoffed and let out a small laugh, while sweeping aside the few shards that had fallen onto the floor. “Brain’s so fucked up, can’t even get fantasy right.”

Stripping down to shower, he noted that despite the blood transfusion his skin was still the same deathly pale. He hoped at the transfusion would do something, especially since it had induced… how had Dr. Uramoto referred to it? Euphoria. In any case, more blood in his system should have returned some of the color.

His eyebrows knotted in confusion.

Kaiba looked at the spot his inner elbow where the needle for the blood transfusion had stuck, hoping to at least see some progress there. It was the same as the rest of his skin. The vague memory of the area turning pink then black drifted through his mind. Shadows dancing across his skin, and his blood gripping onto the needle. That couldn’t be right, but he did seem to recall the doctor mentioning something about it herself. He frowned, unsure whether either part of it was real, and decided to move on. It was certainly improbable, and in either case, he couldn’t do anything about it now.

It did, however, mean that he couldn’t pretend with Mokuba that everything was ok, though perhaps his original plan to do so was a bit facetious. Mokuba was a smart kid. He would know. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t do his best to make sure that everything was as close to normal as possible.

He then also recalled Detective Wasseem’s comments about his skin being cool and the thermometer’s low reading at the hospital. Had the blood transfusion at least helped with that? Maybe, maybe not. More blood in his system should have improved his circulation, but it wasn’t like the doctor had heated the blood up either. If it helped, it would take time, and he didn’t feel any warmer yet. Then again, he also hadn’t felt particularly cold earlier. Not being able to tell one way or the other, he hoped the shower would warm him up.

Kaiba turned the water on and pushed the temperature past the point where he was usually comfortable. Hesitantly he tested the water with his fingertips. It wasn’t scalding like he expected, just warmer. It would do.

The shower itself was uneventful through relaxing. What few remaining smells from the dumpster went down the drain, and the sour smell from his hand quickly disappeared with it. Even after his nose was convinced the taint was gone, he scrubbed to get even the trace of the thoughts off of his skin. He didn’t want even a speck of dust from tonight to be left touching him, but with the water beating against back, it was easy to occasionally just stop and stare off into space. By the time, he exited the shower, it was already one o’clock in the morning.

Exiting the shower, he was left with one final choice: what to clothes to wear to see his brother.

He considered putting the spare school uniform away, and changing into pajamas instead. He may have worked until dawn more than a couple nights, but tonight the idea of shutting the world out and resetting- if not everything else- then at least his own mind and brain was alluring. Moreover, even if he didn’t want to go to bed, he knew Mokuba would insist on it, especially given his current physical condition. Isono already tried to. Perhaps the two were right.

However, he also didn’t feel remotely tired, and there was so much to do. He started putting the school uniform back on, though his time with access to his spare packer, a binder, and a pair of shoes, while making a mental to do list for later.

Isono had mentioned that the Big Five were getting antsy over stock prices, but how had they actually responded to the news of him going missing? Kaiba had worked hard to check them in place, to strike a certain balance between them, and while he had no doubt that they kept their reactions guarded, he knew they harbored no grief over his disappearance. The question really was instead whether they had made any plans in his absence, and if so what those plans were. Tonight would be an invaluable time to sort through the possibilities, check for traces of any suspicious activity, and formulate counter plans.

Fortunately, it likely wouldn’t take much. They already knew at this point what he was capable of.

That was of course on top of that was the work he had fallen behind on. After the attempt on his life, the schoolwork felt even more frivolous than ever, but his work at Kaiba Corp felt more important. It was his life.

In addition to the usual duties of a CEO such as setting company policy and meeting with the board who in this case was simply the Big Five, he prided himself on getting involved in company projects. Not micromanaging them certainly. There were too many projects, and the individual projects were too big for that. But, even before he had taken the company’s reins, his inventions had taken the company to new heights. It was only natural that he continued to tinker and provide technical advice. Some departments had even made a habit of asking him for input, though the tasks they needed help designing and analyzing algorithms for were sometimes quite strange.

Isono had said the projects weren’t urgent and that they could wait, and he should first make sure that everything else was settled, but sinking his teeth into a project sounded like such a productive and welcome distraction from the past night.

The past four nights, Kaiba reminded himself as he finished buttoning the outer shirt and went to grab a pair of shoes from the closet. He was attacked four nights ago.

That in and of itself was something to look into. While Shadi’s comment did suggest that his attacker did have some relation to Yugi, he had no way to prove it, and with Shadi running interference at the police department, the department might not even help if he could. But, he needed to know who had attacked him. He needed to be able to do something about it.

All of that, he thought as he finished tying his shoes, was for later. Now was for Mokuba.

Kaiba walked the short distance down the hall to Mokuba’s room, pace quickening as he could already smell him- at least what he presumed to be him- before even opening the door. Cracking the door open, he saw Mokuba laying there peacefully on the bed that was entirely too big for him. Kaiba reached over to turn the light on, and Mokuba shifted uncomfortably but did not wake. Kaiba moved to kneel beside the bed and rested a hand on Mokuba’s arm, giving him a slight shake.

Mokuba’s eyes fluttered open and then immediately lit with joy and astonishment. “Brother, you’re… you’re...”

A smile broke on his brother’s lips as he struggled to get the words out, and Kaiba felt a smile threaten to crack his own face in half. “I’m here.” He grabbed Mokuba’s hand in reassurance.

Mokuba began to tremble, and his eyes began to water. Kaiba felt his heart drop, and he began to panic, worried that something was wrong, that his hand still wasn’t warm enough. His brother sat up, and the words poured out. “The cops kept acting like it wasn’t that big of a deal. That since they had confirmed that the Mutous hadn’t done anything and since no one posted ransom that you’d just wandered off or something. They posted reports and the reporters swarmed with questions, but you could tell that they were all just thinking,” Mokuba raised is free hand to do air quotes while he mocked, “‘Its only been two days. I’unno, a kid running a company, maybe he cracked under the stress. Imagine he’s out partying.’ It was awful. Only today did they start to understand how bad it was, and the only cop who took it seriously from the beginning told me that you were probably dead.”

That was probably Shadi. Kaiba was finding more and more reasons to hate that man. He gently squeezed Mokuba’s hand. “He was wrong. I am alive.” He let Mokuba continue.

“Well, you were gone, and it sucked. Kisara couldn’t find you, and she checked everywhere. She said she had even went to the Kame Antique Store herself before going to the police. She kept stopping by as if to check that I hadn’t disappeared too. And, even if you sometimes don’t come home, you always answer your phone when your phone when I call, and you didn’t. You weren’t pestering me to do my homework, and you weren’t waiting to see me off when I left in the morning. You didn’t tell me I should go when they gave me time off.” The tuh-thub in his brother’s chest had been steadily quickening, but now jumped faster. Mokuba pouted, and anger hissed out of his lips. “Where were you?”

Kaiba was at first taken back by his brother’s anger, but then again he was angry too.

Damn the boy for hurting him and then leaving him for dead, tossing him aside like trash. Damn the boy for making him wake up in the dumpster, pinned down not just by the garbage but by the overwhelming odor. Damn the boy for making him wake up again surrounded by death. For making him shirk his responsibilities to his company, to his brother. For putting his brother through this. He hated all of this, every ounce of this situation, and since it was the boy’s fault, he hated the boy most of all.

Kaiba felt himself shift with the rage, as if his body was ready to fight- physically fight- the boy right then and there. But his enemy wasn’t here. Only Mokuba. And, in any case, battles were won on the mental playing field not the physical one. So while he held onto his rage, he let the feeling pass before answering. “Somebody attacked me. Tried to kill me and almost succeeded. But, I’m finally better. I’m back.”

“Better? Bro, you look sick.”

“The doctor said I was in shock, and the blood transfusion is still kicking in.” He didn’t want to inflict the details on his brother, but he couldn’t hide them either. “I blacked out. Then, I was trapped… buried under trash. If I could have come back sooner I would have.”

“Who? Who did this?” Mokuba almost yelled.

“I...” Kaiba lowered his head. “I don’t know. I’m going to find out.”

“Good.” Mokuba puffed his chest out defiantly, pulling his hand out of Kaiba’s to curl it into a fist. “Cause when you do, I’m going to personally let him have a piece of my mind.”

A chuckle escaped Kaiba’s lips. While the idea of his brother actually trying to fight his attacker was rather disconcerting, he knew Mokuba was smart enough to not try it, at least so literally. He fussed his brother’s hair. “And, steal from me the satisfaction of doing it myself?”

“I guess not, but at least let me get in a few licks.”

“I’ll consider it.”

They sat there in comfortable silence for a moment before Mokuba finally reached over for a hug that Kaiba accepted. He pulled Mokuba in, glad to have the tactile reminder that his brother was here, that he was here, that the night was almost over. He couldn’t say that everything would be okay; things were rarely anything approaching okay. Yet, perhaps things would start to get back to normal, and at least he knew he could handle normal. He rested his head on Mokuba’s shoulder.

Suddenly there was a noise- a downward flow- by his left ear. The noise itself was soft and subtle, barely there, but it felt like a thousand hooks catching on his brain, pulling him in closer. His body shifted again but in anticipation.

Kaiba breathed in, and his brother’s scent and all its nuances filled his lungs, wafting through his nose, sliding over his teeth, and tickling the back of his throat. Despite his attempts to remind himself that none of that was real, that his nose was probably lying, every detail seemed so real. In addition to the shampoo clinging to his brother’s hair and the detergent sticking to his clothes, there was the lingering trace of chocolate, probably from a parfait his brother had downed before bed without anyone to tell him not to. Behind that was an aura of relief, fragrance of joy, and tangs of anger. It was a turmoil with his brother’s exhaustion evident. A frown flicked across his features.

The downward flow- no two downward flows, a larger one hidden behind the first, too deep to reach- called. While Mokuba’s scent carved itself into Kaiba’s mind, his throat lurched. Saliva flooded his mouth.

Despite Mokuba’s exhaustion, Kaiba’s senses screamed that his brother was at least here and healthy. The rhythmic pounding in his brother’s chest. The full delicate balance of his brother’s scent. The breathing by his ear. The downward flows. Life. It had been a long four days, but they had survived and come out the other side. Kaiba squeezed his brother in closer, his right arm snaking around till his hand rested on the left nape of his brother’s neck. His brother squeezed back. He was here. He was home. Mokuba was alive.

Alive.

The word hung in his mind before ripping in two.

Two next logical thoughts pulled at his attention, both demanding, nagging, insisting that they and they alone be next, yet chaffing and contradicting each other. Caught in the tug of war, he could barely think either. His brow creased.

The thoughts did agree on something though. Good. Alive was good.

He lightly shook his head to clear his thoughts before it turned into a tilt, and his jaw opened as if in a yawn.

“You monster!” A young voice cracked through the room. If the downward flow had been a thousand hooks, the voice was like ripping off velcro, almost literally as Kaiba jerked away to look up, upper lip pulling back in anger. The whole world readjusted and refocused.

Mokuba had not spoken.

Instead staring him down as if he were evil incarnate was a young Seto, wearing the shirt and sweater vest from his time at the orphanage some six years ago. The young Seto’s eyes were narrowed in a glare, hands curled into tiny fits that pounded at the air, and round cheeks trembled with rage.

Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah that may not have been the best place to put your face, Kaiba. 
> 
> But, yeah, I knew I wanted the “You monster!” thing early on especially when he got back to see Mokuba, and then at some point a part of me was like ‘you know a person’s face can get really close to another person’s neck during a hug’ and I looked at that part of me and went ‘You’re evil. I hate it and love it.’
> 
> Also, my logic with the blood transfusion was that the curse would be really happy because ‘yay, blood’ but it is also really confused and not used to processing it this way. So, this leads to it giving Kaiba a disorganized euphoria. However, I’m not going to deny that this started as ‘Lol, what if blood transfusions made vampires high, lol’
> 
> Did you catch that moment with two layers of dramatic irony at once?


	6. Hauntings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba tries to restabilize after a younger version of himself shows up with further accusations. Unfortunately, knowing that something isn’t real doesn’t always make it easy to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings: hallucinations, referenced/implied child abuse, ableism

Kaiba stared at the younger version of himself in shock, unable to put together a thought or respond. This was bad. Very bad. Rage at the other’s proclamation turned to numbness, and while his body tensed at the sight, his mouth which had felt wound up like a coil ready to spring, relaxed. He had previously pulled his upper lip back to reveal his teeth, but it now simply slid down. His jaw went slack before an overabundance of spit forced him to close his mouth and swallow. A tension in the front of his mouth released and shifted.

But young Seto was not going to wait for Kaiba to respond. “How could you possibly do such a thing?”

Kaiba continued to stare. This was a hallucination. Beyond the sheer impossibility of a younger him actually being in the room, he had experienced one very similar to this before. 

When he had been attempting to corral the Big Five to get himself out from under Gozaburo’s thumb, he had unfortunately needed to use Mokuba in a bait and switch. For one, despite the money and influence he had already managed to accumulate during Gozaburo’s tests, Gozaburo’s power was on an entirely different scale. He could buy small nations with pocket change and hold larger ones on a leash made of weapons deals and contracts. If Gozaburo brought down the full force of his power, Seto would have been done for. More than done for, he would have been obliterated. Gozaburo had never been one for mercy in response to a failed assignment or sign of weakness, and Seto could only begin to imagine what outright mutiny would bring.

Seto Kaiba needed to lull Gozaburo into thinking he knew what was going on, to believe he had the upper hand and needed to do nothing. Gozaburo needed to believe he had an in. Seto needed to trust the person in question. Since Mokuba’s gifted shares would push Gozaburo over the fifty percent mark, making him feel invincible, Seto knew it would be a shrewd move.

The problem was this would all be for nothing if Gozaburo was not convinced, and unfortunately, Gozaburo was no fool.

So, if it were just him on the line, Seto Kaiba would have tried to find another way. The problem was that the game was already set, and his brother was already on the board. While Gozaburo had throughout the years focused most of his wrath on Seto, he hadn’t been afraid to take his anger out on Mokuba. Especially since it would hurt Seto in the process. Especially if he managed to involve Seto in the punishment itself. Seto had over the years gotten better at attracting the brunt of Gozaburo’s rage. But, Gozaburo was himself like the bombs he sold, even if a bit smarter: when he went off, everything was a potential target without hope for containment, all you could hope to do was take the collateral yourself.

Seto Kaiba remembered nights where Mokuba had been denied dinner as well. In those times he always made sure Mokuba would be the first to eat come morning. He remembered when Gozaburo had wanted to remind him of the weapons his ideas had been folded into, Gozaburo had forced Mokuba- who hadn’t perfected his own steely resolve- to watch the grisly videos and reports of the weapons’ aftermaths. Perhaps Gozaburo had been trying to turn his brother against him, but his brother miraculously remained. He remembered when Gozaburo had found a stash of games that Mokuba had made and kept hidden in his room, and Gozaburo had decided that the best course of action was to gather the games on the driveway and give Seto a choice: force Mokuba to receive a worse punishment for his disobedience or light the match himself. Neither option had been good, but the choice had been obvious.

If he lost this round, years of threats to send both of them, not just Seto but Mokuba too, back the orphanage might finally come to head, and Seto hadn’t hesitated to wonder if those threats were only the tip of the iceberg. As such, he would be glad to give up Mokuba so that his brother wouldn’t be dragged down with him in case of a loss, and he trusted that his brother would return to him if he somehow made it through.

If they somehow made it through… the thought of freedom had seemed so far away at the time.

Seto Kaiba did not regret his choice when he discretely slipped a few pieces of information to Gozaburo, not enough to threaten his plans but enough that Gozaburo could start to see something happening. And, certainly not as much as Mokuba knew, so that if Gozaburo saw through that part of the ruse, the titan would still keep his brother on hand. Seto Kaiba did not regret staging the fight where he accused his brother of the act in front of the Big Five and a member of the cleaning staff, who would inevitably pass the information on. If it saved Mokuba from Gozaburo’s heavier hand, he did not regret pushing his brother to the floor.

But, you can hate something without regretting it.

Seto Kaiba kept up appearances during the scene but quickly dismissed himself afterwards to hide in a bathroom and argue with a ghost who rattled on about broken promises and how he failed as a brother, as the father he promised his brother he would be. He tried to tell himself that he would fail even harder if he didn’t do this. That he was trying to save his brother from something worse. But, he wouldn’t listen, and he saw himself melt into a puddle on the bathroom floor.

However, that time Kaiba had at least known what his hallucination wanted from him. Now he had absolutely no idea what it was going on about. How could he possibly do what? He stared blankly at the fuming young Seto in front of him. With his mind still reeling, he held onto Mokuba for support.

Mokuba shifted in Kaiba’s arms then looked up. “Bro, are you alright?”

Kaiba glanced down at his brother then back at the young version of himself, who chose that moment to rush across Mokuba’s bed screaming, “You were going to kill him!” Kaiba felt the words like a sucker punch to the gut, but he didn’t have the energy to think or respond beyond a repeated muttering of ‘no’. Suddenly he felt traces of ghostly fingers across his skin as young Seto grasped and pulled at Kaiba’s arms.

However, it was Mokuba himself that ultimately detached himself from him, with glances between Kaiba and what he knew- despite his senses- was just air in front of him. Still his brother did not leave his side, and in fact his brother moved to hold onto his arm. Mokuba’s voice shook slightly but was otherwise strong. “Brother, if you are seeing anything there, I can’t see it.”

Kaiba was going to respond, but young Seto would not let up. He pounded his ghostly small fists against Kaiba’s chest and screamed so hard he was crying. “They were right. They were all right. You killed the garbage collectors, and you were going to kill Mokuba too. Eat him like he was a treat. Disgusting!”

Thousands of tiny cuts spread across Kaiba’s hand, while splotches of dark discolored blood began to appear on his sleeve. His head reeled. He rocked slightly, before pressing his eyes shut and placing his head in his hands in an attempt to block out the hallucination. It continued its hollering and he could still feel the light beat of its hands against him. The tactile portion of the hallucination wasn’t as vivid as the rest, but it was still enough to catch his attention and throw him for a loop. “I know it’s not there. I know. But, the little asshole won’t shut up.”

“Little asshole…? what are you seeing?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Kaiba screamed, glad that all of the help staff went home for the night and the estate’s size meant that the nearest neighbors wouldn’t hear.

Mokuba didn’t answer for a moment. The young Seto’s screams filled the gap. “Monster! No, worse than a monster. You’re an animal. A dog. Can’t even control yourself.”

However, Mokuba did eventually respond, “It looks like it matters to you.”

It was a statement, a pure simple fact. Kaiba was curled tight into a ball, head in his hands, screaming because of something that wasn’t even there. He pulled his fingers apart looked at his brother through a glare. He hated it. He was supposed to be in control, and however much nonsense his hallucination was spouting, it was right that he wasn’t in control. Not anymore. Worse, the fact that his hallucination- this thing cloaked in his own image and produced by his own brain to taunt him- was spouting this nonsense probably meant that Shadi’s and Dr. Uramoto’s accusations were starting to get to him. Either way he was losing his grip on reality.

Mokuba took a step back, as if the glare was supposed to be directed at him.

Young Seto took this moment to holler, “You’re making everything worse!”

Mokuba, however, did not back up any further and in fact in fact he nodded as if he just figured something out and stepped forward again. “I know you’d rather I not see this, that you’d rather be able to deal with this on your own… I know you often try to hide it or go away when this happens. I mean you don’t deny it, but…”

Mokuba was right. Kaiba wouldn’t pretend- at least to Mokuba- that his brain was okay. While he wanted to protect Mokuba from the slime and grime of the world, any form of protection that hid that from his brother was no form of protection at all. He could even live with the fact that sometimes the slime and grime was him because usually he was doing what he had to ensure their survival, their future in this world. But, not knowing whether what he was seeing was real and not being able to focus on reality even when the distinction was staring him in the face? That didn’t guarantee Mokuba’s safety. It made Kaiba a liability.

Sure, Kaiba managed well enough that most people knew nothing or only suspected him of the odd quirk. He managed, and considering he ran a gargantuan company, one could say he managed well. Yet, he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. The hallucinations could push him into a fatal mistake. Somebody could find out and use it against him. When Gozaburo had discovered these symptoms, he had cycled therapists and psychiatrists through the mansion for months trying to find someone to fix this broken child before his investment was ruined. When the professionals couldn’t make the problem go entirely away, Gozaburo’s assignments and ultimatums grew harsher and harsher for Seto to prove that he was worth keeping around. Eventually, the tasks became impossible.

“But… I just wish I knew how to help you better.” Mokuba put his hand on Kaiba’s shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have to help,” Kaiba stated looking down at his hands. The cuts had spread and gone deeper, and the dark blood was now pouring over him and onto the floor, and worse he could practically feel it dripping onto the floor. His sleeves were now completely soaked. It would have been so easy to believe this was real.

“Tch.” The young Seto was not impressed, and Kaiba hated how his eyes automatically flicked in that direction at the sound. Seto had his chin stuck haughtily in the air and was looking down at Kaiba with contempt. “You wouldn’t deserve his help anyways.”

“Maybe,” Mokuba shrugged, and for a moment it sounded like he was responding to the younger version, even if Kaiba knew that was impossible. “But, I don’t need to help with Kaiba Corp business, and you let me do that. I want to help, and I could if I knew how. Like what would even help? Telling you it's not real? You already know that. Tell you to concentrate on something else? Whatever you’re seeing must be horrifying. And, anyways, you’ve probably already thought of anything I could say. I’unno this is probably stupid... but I could probably get you some water or something…”

Mokuba lifted his hand and started to pull away causing Kaiba to panic, “No!” Mokuba stopped. Kaiba reminded himself that the blood on his hands and arms wasn’t real and then wrapped his arms around his brother’s waist pulling him into a tight hug. The rhythmic pounding in his brother’s chest was right next to his right ear, and his brother’s scent wafted into his nostrils. But, this time there was no strange shift inside him, just his younger self screaming behind him. It took a moment for the words to come out. “You being here helps.”

“Okay.” Mokuba immediately wrapped his arms around Kaiba. “I won’t leave then.”

Kaiba was glad for that.

Moreover, Mokuba was wrong about one thing. Just because he could think of something doesn’t mean he did because even his sharp mind started to lose things in the toss and tumult provided by his brain. And, when the hallucinations could pull his thoughts away from reasonable courses of action, just because he did think of something doesn’t mean he couldn’t be reminded. Especially when the person doing the reminding was his brother. His brother who could tell him he was hallucinating without a single drop of accusation or pity. His brother who wanted to help him while still thinking he was doing his best. His brother who understood that his best wasn’t enough yet somehow inexplicably managed to forgive him. Someone else and those words could have struck differently, but this was Mokuba. Kaiba knew Mokuba was good.

Things would certainly have been more complicated if this hallucination hadn’t been so fake or had managed to trick him. He’d anchored himself firmly to the world, to the things that could and could not be, in order to help prevent that, but sometimes things slipped through. He had made specific plans with Isono and Kisara on how to intervene and prevent him from embarrassing himself if they noticed something. What words to use. What to do if he didn’t believe them. Perhaps, later, he would tell Mokuba these plans as well.

“What are you doing? How can you touch him after what you’ve done?”

Time to ground himself, however much he hated that he had to do it. Fortunately, Mokuba’s presence made it easier.

There were things here that were real. Mokuba was one of them. For one, his hallucinations never went out their way to comfort him, and nearly always tried to shake him apart whether through physical threats like the fissure he saw in the bathroom, horror like the blood pouring from his arms and the dark reflections, or through a direct attack like his younger self was doing now. Their brotherly bond held strong; this was indeed Mokuba.

The details held out as well. Kaiba could feel Mokuba with a solidity that the younger Seto’s fingers and the blood on his hands lacked. One of Mokuba’s hands was on his back while the other wrapped around his head. And, this close he didn’t have to completely deny the sound of Mokuba’s heartbeat in his ear or the scent settling all the way in his lungs, though the intensity was both was a bit stronger than should be possible. Tuh-thub. Tuh-thub. Chocolate, anger, and joy. He breathed in and absorbed the reminders that Mokuba was alive. Alive.

Alive.

Kaiba turned slightly in Mokuba’s grip to glare at his younger self. Young Seto returned the favor. “What do you think you’re looking at, dog. Monsters don’t get to judge.”

Whatever his hallucination thought he had been about to do, Mokuba was here and well. He’d done many horrible things on his way out of hell, and his heart would be weighed against every single one of them. But, not only was his younger self suggesting something that was in and of itself impossible- laughable even- there was the physical proof that it didn’t happen right in his arms. Another tether anchoring himself to reality.

Kaiba breathed in, and then suddenly a thought hit him. The hallucinations had no smell. Young Seto had no heartbeat.

His first reaction was to try to push the thought away. Even if they were real, why would a younger version of himself or the blood on his arms have a smell? Why should he expect to hear a heartbeat. That would be ridiculous. Except of course that since waking up outside of the dumpster everything had a smell. Every person a sound in their chest. Even if these new smells and sounds were hallucinations, they had so far been consistent, and the one person who had seemed to break these new rules had proven them true by being a hologram. The smell of blood- or at least his blood from the cuts Jun Liu had remarked on and those that had appeared after striking the mirror to the needle prick in the doctor’s office- had consistently remained an off sour note that was currently missing.

Kaiba closed his eyes. He didn’t want to cash in on the new smells and sounds being real, but they were telling him that Mokuba was alive, so for once, he didn’t want to dismiss them either. He simply closed his eyes and breathed.

Kaiba stayed like that for at least a minute. When young Seto decided to go into another tirade or accusation to get Kaiba’s attention back, Kaiba decided to interrupt him this time. “Did you enjoy the chocolate parfait?”

“What?” Mokuba said while shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“They are your favorite, and I don’t usually let you have them before bed. I know you had one. They are supposed to be a treat, but you’d eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you didn’t have anyone telling you otherwise.”

“Is now really the time?”

“Answer the question.”

Kaiba felt Mokuba shrug. “Isono must have told you. Traitor. But, they didn’t have to tell me not to. I knew I had to step up with you gone. I helped Isono with business; I ate my veggies. The only parfait I had was put out by the staff tonight in an effort to cheer me up. I know they were trying to distract me, but I caved.”

“You did good. Did you enjoy it?”

Mokuba gave a halfhearted laugh. “A little. But, it would have been better with you here.”

“Hnn,” Kaiba hummed in affirmation. He opened his eyes to see that while the young Seto was still there, the image was wavering, as if his brain was finally starting to get the memo that the little gremlin wasn’t real. Kaiba slowly let go of Mokuba and walked over to the hallucination and swung his arm, now devoid of any blood, through the air without any resistance. He turned back to Mokuba. “Isono said you had the last two days off school. Are you behind on your homework?”

Mokuba frowned and looked down. “Only a little. After they sent me home, I tried to get homework done but things kept coming up at with Kaiba Corp and with the investigation, and even when things weren’t coming up… I kept thinking about the fact that you weren’t here. I did get some of it done though, I promise.”

Kaiba smiled, patting Mokuba’s head. “It’s fine. You’ll have the weekend to catch up.”

A groan escaped his brother’s lips that was cut short by a look of revelation. “Are you feeling better?” Kaiba glanced behind him to find the rest of the room empty and nodded. A worried look creased Mokuba’s featured. “I know its silly, but I can’t help but think that this is my fault.”

Kaiba’s eyebrows knit together and his eyes narrowed. “It’s my brain that is fucking up not yours.”

“Yeah, it’s silly.” Mokuba shrugged, turning his eyes away then looking back. “It’s just that… you might not tell me much, but I do know that it only happens when things are bad. That it’s worse when things are worse. And…” Mokuba took a deep breath. His eyes looked wet, and his voice began to shake. The smell of stress spilled off of his brother’s body. “You seemed okay up until I hugged you; I mean other than looking a bit pale. And, I don’t know what it was like for you, but from here, it looked like this episode was pretty bad.” Mokuba wiped his eyes before any tears came out. “But, you’ve done so much for me that I feel bad for even thinking it.”

Kaiba put his hands on Mokuba’s shoulders. “You are right. It usually happens when I’m stressed, and this was particularly bad. But, it wasn’t you. It has been a very long day for both of us.” The image of the dead garbage collectors strewn about passed through his mind. A long day indeed. “I’ve had enough stress for the next week. It was probably that. Never you.”

“Figured,” Mokuba said looking thoughtful for a moment before chuckling. “‘Enough stress for the next week’? That must be a lot cause you live off of the stuff.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Kaiba flatly responded, ruffling Mokuba’s hair. “It’s probably time for you to get back to bed.”

Mokuba’s jaw dropped. “But, you just got back!”

“It’s one thirty in the morning. You need to sleep.”

Mokuba pouted. “I’ll go to bed after you go to bed.”

Kaiba rolled his eyes but realized there was a chance he would not be able to win this one. He usually was able to guide Mokuba fairly easily. But, Mokuba could be as stubborn as him sometimes, and when that stubborn streak reared its head, Mokuba knew his brother well enough to hold his own in the resulting argument. “I was asleep in a dumpster for the past four days, and just got up around… four and a half hours ago. I’m not tired. Plus, I have both business and school work to catch up on, and I have to figure out who did this to me. It’s my turn to be awake, and your turn to rest. We’ll talk more in the m-” He had been about to say morning, but suddenly a shiver went down his spine at the word. Something was wrong. He pushed the thought aside. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

“Bro,” Mokuba said with a smirk and a laugh, “considering the doctor said that you had been in shock, I don’t think it works that way.”

Kaiba pressed his lips together. He definitely wasn’t going to win this one, but he also wasn’t sure how long he was going to stay up. He still couldn’t agree to the current conditions. “How about I make you another parfait, and then you get to stay up for another hour before going back to bed. But, then you have to go to bed. Deal?”

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank setokaibasbants on tumblr for letting me talk to them about the chapter. Of course if anyone notices anything they would like to bring up, good or bad, feel free to tell me!
> 
> The piece about the previous hallucination actually came to me just as I got to that part. Like the moment I wrote ‘he had experienced one like this before’ the scene popped into my head. And, then I decided I wanted to write the context of his feelings around the scene more explicitly even if (other than the hallucination) it was a rip directly from the anime.
> 
> Also that unfortunately lead to a moment where I had 2-4 Seto Kaibas running around depending on how you counted and referring to each in a way that made sense based not only on keeping them separate but also reflecting their roles in the story. So, ‘young Seto’ for the hallucination, a full ‘Seto Kaiba’ for the one mounting a revolution (especially since Gozaburo was dancing around in the background there so just Kaiba didn’t make as much sense for him), and plain yet authoritative ‘Kaiba’ for the present.
> 
> Also, I do think that the lack of heartbeat was partly due to lag: he’s still adjusting to his new senses so his brain called up how he would have pictured someone. I think his hallucinations might adjust as he adjusted to his senses. But, since most of his hallucinations are primarily visual and auditory, the olfactory part would lag behind regardless. In the end, I also just couldn’t resist doing something to force him to confront how his new senses fit into everything even if he still doesn’t want to completely believe in them.


	7. Unappetizing Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparing Mokuba’s parfait and a cup of coffee gives Kaiba a moment to look both forward and back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter content warnings: referenced past misgendering.

“I’d offer to pull out the board and play a game of capsule monsters and hang out that way, but with all the work you have to do, we can save that for later,” Mokuba rambled as he practically bounced down the stairs. “So, what do you want to work on first?”

Kaiba shrugged. He had already made the mental checklist of what needed accomplishing, but that didn’t entirely answer where to start since it all had to get done anyway. “I will need you to get me caught up on what’s been happening at the company and if there has been anything suspicious. But...” As much as the Big Five needed containing, dealing with that now wasn’t entirely satisfying, not when there were other concerns on the table. Moreover, Isono hadn’t mentioned anything himself on the subject, and while he trusted Mokuba’s judgment, Isono was certainly more experienced in maters of internal politics. Kaiba’s lip curled. “You said you wanted to get a few licks in on whoever did this to me?”

Mokuba landed on the penultimate step and turned to look up at Kaiba with a mixture of excitement and determination. “Yeah?”

“Then, help me track down information on whoever did this. I have a few leads, and after talking to the person in charge of the investigation, we’ll likely have to get peace of mind on our own.”

The threat the boy posed to his safety and his ability to protect his brother was Kaiba’s first priority. Yet, even if Shadi was right and the boy was being kept on a leash unable to harm him again, it wouldn’t be enough. Not after what he had been through. Plus, Kaiba found the idea laughable that anything as simple as a leash- literal or not- could hold the boy back.

Mokuba titled his head. “Shadi? He was a bit weird, but he seemed to take it seriously enough. Seemed better than the other detectives anyway. I liked him.”

“He is certainly odd, and he seemed competent enough, at least at first.” Kaiba looked down at his brother, who was now walking again at his side, and wondered how much to say. That Shadi believed in bullshit such as vampires. That Shadi claimed to have a family who would kill him without a second thought. How about that Shadi had managed to commandeer his holographic system for his own uses, something that suggested power of some form whether social or technological. Or better yet, that Shadi had blatantly told him he was planning to interfere with a police investigation. Even after that there were a million other details making the man suspicious. In the end, Kaiba decided on the simplest and most direct answer. “He implied he knew who did this when we talked alone, but other detectives I talked to didn’t have a clue. We can’t rely on any of them.”

“Huh...” Mokuba considered this for a bit, his face scrunching up in confusion, before realization and anger dawned. “Wait! Shadi was the one who said you were probably dead. He said it with such certainty and sincerity. Like he didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news but he thought I deserved to know. And, you’re saying he didn’t think I deserved to know who hurt you, or that he was lying and knew you were alive?” Mokuba let out an exasperated sigh. “Why are adults- no, why are people like this?”

Kaiba immediately responded, “Because people are horrible.” They had already now entered the over-sized dining room, making their way to the kitchen behind.

“I mean I knew that,” Mokuba chuckled, “I didn’t even really believe him anyway. Just didn’t realize I had gotten my hopes up that somebody actually gave a shit.”

Kaiba considered his brother’s words. He didn’t want to defend Shadi at all, since the man was incredibly suspicious. But, there was a chance that they would have to talk with him again, either in dealing with the conclusion of his missing person’s case or while Shadi tried to get the murder under wraps, and one should always correctly identify the threat a potential enemy posed.

So, he clarified as they entered the kitchen, “Shadi is dangerous- don’t mistake that- but he did believe I had died. It seems he lies more through omission than direct statement, which means people are less likely to notice when he does. He knows how to be discrete, so the other detectives just think he’s weird without guessing the full amount of bullshit swimming in his brain. I’m just one of the unlucky bastards he tried to indoctrinate the moment he got me alone. Fortunately, I wasn’t so easily convinced. Unfortunately, same could not be said of the doctor who examined me, who should have known better. If he ever approaches you turn him away and don’t listen. He has a way of including just enough truth to make his ridiculous words worm their way into your skull.” He finished with a grimace remembering the incident in the bedroom. The words had gotten far deeper into Kaiba’s brain than he had hoped. He already regretted listening to Shadi for as long as he did, though he supposed it was useful to know that there were a bunch of occult nuts ready to kill him.

Mokuba shook his head, “As if I’d let him through the door after pulling that.”

“Good.” Kaiba opened the refrigerator. “Do you want whipped cream with it? Fruit? Cookies?” He didn’t know how to cook and had barely touched a stove in his life, deciding to leave most of that work to the mansion’s staff, but he would have been damned if he didn’t know how to put together his brother’s favorite treat, especially since it was so simple.

Mokuba took a moment to answer, and when Kaiba turned to look at his brother, an impish grin had spread across Mokuba’s face. “The works. And, you are going to have some too, right?”

Kaiba shrugged as he pulled the milk and butter from the fridge before in another trip getting a handful of berries and the cream. “Not hungry.” He then out of habit set some coffee to brew while he got the rest of the ingredients ready.

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that? ‘Cause most of the time, you’re just saying that. Plus, even if you actually for real weren’t hungry, that wouldn’t prevent you from having a treat.”

Mokuba wasn’t lying. There had been plenty of times when he had brushed off Isono’s and Mokuba’s prodding only for them to discover later that he hadn’t eaten in the past day. It wasn’t that he was trying to starve himself, but food was simply a necessity that wasn’t even near the top of the long list of necessities in his life. Plus, after years of having to complete assignments on an empty stomach, ignoring his body’s cries for food had become habit even when now that the threat was gone. It made the sense of starvation that had crawled to the front of his mind in the dumpster and had shaken him to the core all the more disconcerting.

“I did eat… something earlier. Haven’t felt this full in a while.”

“You hesitated.”

Kaiba glanced back at Mokuba and snorted rather than give a proper response. He didn’t want to acknowledge that he didn’t know what he had eaten. Nor did he want to admit to his brother that even as he was preparing the parfait it sounded completely unappealing.

Fortunately, Mokuba didn’t press further and changed the topic of conversation. “So… what leads do you have? What will the vice president be doing for Kaiba Corporation today?”

“I’ll be sifting through public and private online records to see if I can find a trace of my attacker. He looked around my age and did seem to have a connection to Yugi, so I’ll check schools records in the area first. That connection does give an opportunity to help the investigation.” Kaiba started measuring the ingredients for the pudding portion. “My attacker seemed to fancy himself a guardian angel of sort; he knew that I had won the white dragon necklace from Yugi’s grandfather and thought to get it back while passing a bit of extra judgment on the way. My techniques were a bit unusual, but...”

And, he supposed looking back a bit heavy handed.

He hadn’t forced the old man to play the chess game against him, and the old man had been confident enough he was going to teach Kaiba a lesson that he had almost done so willingly, but being escorted to the facility by Kaiba’s security detail hadn’t given the old man much of a choice either. Furthermore, while there was no point in doing things without at least a little bit of flare, he had also known going in that holograms could cause psychosomatic problems, especially for those with preexisting health problems. If your senses believed you were under attack, it sometimes didn’t matter whether you actually were or not; your body reacted. Kaiba hadn’t known that Sugoroku would be sent to the hospital, but knowing the older man’s age and the hyper-realistic setting he had used, he hadn’t been entirely surprised either.

That isn’t to say he wouldn’t have pressed Sugoroku Mutou in order to get the necklace. The necklaces in the set were beautiful sure and he had a fondness for the fierce beasts depicted, but he also had known from the moment he had first laid eyes on one that they were important.

Seven years ago, back at the orphanage, one of the necklaces had rested on Gozaburo’s fingers as he chided Kisara for talking to Seto. At that point Seto had little idea who this man was other than he was very powerful and visiting the orphanage for the good press. The second fact had meant little to him, but the first had already caught his attention.

While Gozaburo was talking with the orphanage’s director, Kisara had caught Seto trailing behind and had stepped back to warn him in a whisper that despite the visit Gozaburo was not interested in interacting with the children outside of scheduled photo shoots. Seto had replied that that was expected; he was just here to observe. The answer had amused Kisara, and she had asked some more questions, while keeping her eyes on Gozaburo and occasionally scanning the area.

And, who may I ask is observing Gozaburo Kaiba?

_Seto. The staff might tell you a different name_ _or say that I am not a boy,_ _but they think a piece of paper says who you are. It doesn’t._

That’s an interesting name, Seto. Not exactly common. Where did you find it?

_Came to me. Sounds more like me than the other name. And, point is I chose it. It’s mine. It doesn’t mean much, but it’s something they can’t take. Who are you and why do you care anyways?_

My name is Kisara. It is my job to protect Kaiba.The name reminded me of something, but you are right names and paper don’t mean much. Decisions and people do. And, I would like to know about the boy who decided to observe my boss.

_Last names can matter._

Seto, do you honestly think Kaiba would adopt?

_He doesn’t look like he’d be easy to convince._ _I’d have to do my research first._

I doubt Kaiba would be the nicest of parents.

_I am not looking for a nice parent. There are plenty of supposedly nice parents who just want a smart kid to brag about, but don’t care about that kid’s younger brother or say they can’t afford him. There are plenty of nice parents who stop even caring about the older brother because they think a piece of paper says who you are. Unfortunately, paper matters because people believe in it. Otherwise it's just paper._

Then, why care about Kaiba?

_Because people believe in money._

Seto usually would have been annoyed by such idle chatter and by revealing so much, but she was also using his actual name and taking his words seriously. Perhaps as Mokuba had mentioned with Shadi, he hadn’t even realized his hopes had risen.

However, even if Seto had not been annoyed, Gozaburo had been furious after he finished his conversation with the director and turned to find Kisara making chatter with an orphan, had taken the necklace out of his pocket while commanding Kisara to do her job. The necklace and the small dragon pendant at its end had immediately caught his attention, but more so had Kisara’s reaction. Kisara’s voice was firm when she reminded Gozaburo that she was able both talk and keep an eye on his safety and that this boy was certainly not a threat to it; she was certainly not weak. But, she had also flinched as his fingers had tightened around the pearls.

Seto had realized then that the necklaces had power, power that Gozaburo did not deserve. Kaiba realized- or was it remembered, since it seemed like the thought had been with him the whole time, just unable to come to the surface- that though he had been the one collecting the necklaces, Kisara had the real claim.

So no, he would have made sure to get the necklace one way or another. But he could have worn the man down before making his move to make him more pliable; he could have adjusted the realism settings on the hologram so only necklaces rather than lives were at stake. Instead, his impatience at the man’s sentimentality had made his blood burn and had gotten the better of him.

He hadn’t realized his mind had drifted until Mokuba chimed in a tone Kaiba couldn’t quite catch, “You do always do things your own way.”

“True. But, the point is that Yugi is bully bait. I doubt I was the first to cause Yugi grief nor receive my attacker’s wrath. There likely have been other incidents, particularly involving other students. See if there are any suspicious reports surrounding Yugi or the high school more generally. We don’t even need a direct trace to Yugi yet, since that could have just not gotten reported. Just notify me if you find anything interesting, especially if you find a pattern.”

“Okay,” Mokuba nodded. “Look up reports around the school to see if there has been any other weird shit going on. Got it.” He started out the kitchen door before returning a couple moments later. “Going to get my laptop and head to the living room. Want me to bring yours down?”

“That would be helpful,” Kaiba replied, getting back to making the parfait and considering how he would accomplish his own task.

The first point of order would be to slip into the school’s network check through registration lists especially if the school kept the ID photos on hand to compare against his memory. A direct identification would be easiest. If that didn’t pan out, he could always check the surrounding schools as well. A frown started to crease Kaiba’s features. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Kaiba may not have paid too much attention to social life at school, but he swore he would have noticed if there was a confident dark-skinned Yugi with even wilder hair running around Domino High. The boy had certainly looked… distinctive. Even if the boy went to another school, wouldn’t he have turned up in the police investigation?

Unless, of course, he did and for whatever unfortunate reason Shadi had decided not to include that in the file Detectives Wasseem and Ito had read.

While he was poking around the school files, he might as well see if Yugi, or for that manner any of the gaggle that had started following him, were mentioned in any disciplinary reports, especially as a victim. It would give Mokuba more to work with, since even Kaiba had to admit that ‘anything suspicious that happened to anybody at the school or in contact with Yugi’ was a bit broad, and barring outright identification, getting even just one other instance would help significantly, give them more leads and threads to pull on.

It wasn’t long before the pudding had cooked and the cream was whipped. Kaiba retrieved a large glass and layered the pudding, whipped cream, and other snacks inside, then put the pots in the sink and poured himself a mug of the now finished coffee. He breathed in and noted that it didn’t exactly smell appetizing, though he couldn’t put a finger on why. Then again, even if he wasn’t tired yet, it wasn’t like he drank the stuff just for the taste, and he probably would need it later anyway. As much as he had tried to convince Mokuba that him being awake was reasonable, he had no idea how long his current alertness would last.

Plus, coffee had never failed him before, and if he was going to drink it, he might as well drink it while it was still warm. He put the mug to his lips and took a gulp.

Or at least he tried to.

His mouth immediately reacted, spraying the dark brown liquid onto the counter and wall in front of him. Bad. Horrible. The taste wasn’t remarkably different from usual, though it lacked a certain sharpness or punch to the flavor. Yet, for some reason his mouth failed to recognize it as edible. He could have taken a shot of pure cooking oil or even gasoline for a similar effect, and as what little liquid remained started to each the back of his mouth, his gag reflex activated.

Kaiba’s body reacted so viscerally to the coffee that he forgot what he was doing, forgot to think. His whole body tensed, and he flailed for a moment. The mug accidentally slammed onto the countertop. The ceramic shattered and the rest of the coffee spilled onto the floor.

Kaiba stared at the mess for a moment, before his mouth’s protests convinced him to move. Dashing to the sink, he turned the nearest handle to the faucet and ran the water through his mouth, occasionally spitting to get as much of the taste out of his mouth as possible. The cold cleansing water bubbled around his teeth and swirled over his tongue. After a few seconds, the terrible taste seemed to finally disappear. he turned the faucet off and stared blankly at the sink.

It shouldn’t have tasted _that_ bad; he’d forced plenty of disgusting food down his throat with barely a complaint at Gozaburo’s dinner table. Plus, his first cup hadn’t even tasted that bad. It didn’t make sense. He continued to stare at the sink.

Perhaps it had been simply a bad batch of beans.

Kaiba grabbed several wads of paper towels and cleaned up the mess, annoyed that this had to happen when the cleaning staff had already gone home, and then grabbed the parfait to head into the living room across the manor. There, Mokuba was perched on the couch, shoes on the fabric and legs contorted to hold his laptop. Kaiba considered reminding him to put his feet on the floor, but Mokuba looked comfortable. And, if Mokuba was comfortable, he would be able to focus easier as well.

His own laptop was on the coffee table, neatly set in front of the spot next to Mokuba and already plugged into the wall. Mokuba’s power cord was nowhere to be seen.

Kaiba set the parfait down on the table, sliding onto the seat next to Mokuba and tapping Mokuba’s shoulder to get his attention. Mokuba blinked and looked over, a smile spreading from ear to ear as his eyes landed on the heaps of pudding and cream. “Thank you so much!” He snatched the treat off the table and shoveled several scoops down his throat before looking at the table in front of Kaiba. “You already finished your coffee?”

“Swallow before speaking, and I threw it out. Something was off with the taste.”

Mokuba stared at him a moment before laughing. “Maybe four days cold turkey was what you needed. You do need to rest anyway.” He paused for a moment. “I mean I’d trade it in a heartbeat for you safe, but silver linings and all.”

Kaiba grimaced. Perhaps, though that shouldn’t have changed the taste. Regardless, if he got tired before work was through, he would brew another pot, rest be damned.

Still, he would rather bet on the fantasy that even in this state- recovering from shock with an already screwy brain addled further by other’s delusions- he could make it through the night unaided than pray that the next batch turns out better. Kaiba pushed his limits and routinely ignored them, but he still knew they existed, however inconvenient that might be. Though if Mokuba was right and he had lost his coffee reliance, then at least he wouldn’t be dealing with withdraw symptoms which increased his chances significantly. Silver linings and all.


	8. A Game Afoot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Content Warnings: General descriptions of violence, side character death, referenced canonical suicide, referenced child abuse
> 
> Note: In a previous author’s note I mentioned a potential month in which this takes place. I have changed my mind and gotten the timeline more together. The current date is mentioned in text

Kaiba logged into his computer to begin the investigation, pausing only for a moment to stare at the screen and pull his thoughts together. Diving into the task, he opened the programs that would route his digital footprint through several different IP addresses before bypassing the school system’s weak security system.

He glanced at Mokuba, who the chance to start investigating while Kaiba had finished making the parfait. “Not expecting anything yet, but research going well?”

“Still trying to find the right search words to weed out all the junk without losing something we want. I mean, I’d type ‘minus sport’ to get rid of news about Domino High’s games, but if the incident we are looking for involved an athlete then we’d have a problem. Even a quick google of ‘Yugi Mutou’ turned up a bunch of articles about the investigation of your disappearance.” Mokuba rolled his eyes and gave a shrug. “I mean I’ll be able to do it, but its a needle in a haystack. Glad I don’t have to do research papers yet.”

Kaiba let out a small laugh but kept his focus on his work, entering the database and clicking on a random student to examine the entry format. The school network it seemed did have their school ID pictures, in addition to all the students’ final grades, all assignment grades for this year, the current balance for a lunch plan if the student had one, if they had any library books checked out, and any disciplinary action taken against the student. A small portrait of the student’s school life. It was needless to say thorough, though Kaiba supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Looking back, he had seen some of this information the one time he had cared enough to open the student portal. But, in any case, it was nice to see the information in a pure database form not spruced up for user interaction; it made more sense that way.

Kaiba felt Mokuba’s eyes drilling holes in the side of his head and glanced in Mokuba’s direction just in time for his brother to blurt out, “What was that about?”

What… ? Oh, he had indeed voiced a laugh. “You helped write the report on potential sites for Kaiba Land, and Isono notified me that you visited some of the sites yourself and helped set up the subsidiaries so we can buy land discretely. Research papers will be a walk in the park.”

“That doesn’t count,” Mokuba pouted shoveling another spoonful of parfait in his mouth and glancing back at the computer.

“Why not? It counts for more.”

Mokuba shrugged. “But that was fun. I know you say we’re not quite ready to build it yet, that there are more important things to do, but it’s your dream. I get excited thinking about how close we are to realizing it.” Mokuba’s lips twitched upward. “Back at the orphanage, talking about it, what you wanted to have there, how you were going to let poor kids like us in for free, you really smiled then. I kinda hope that when you have a chance to work on it again, you’ll remember to smile more.”

Kaiba grunted. It had been a dream and in the back of his mind still was. He had even started some cursory work towards the project, which had sent Mokuba from site to site for review. For now, they were merely some real estate investments discretely acquired through subsidiaries. They will generate revenue regardless, but should he ever decide to realize the dream, he at least wouldn’t have to worry about a price hike from speculation.

But, dreams were also for good times, and while his time at the orphanage had been humiliating, the humiliation had afforded certain luxuries.

For one- as a nobody- he had the power to do nothing and therefore he was forced to spend most of his time doing nothing. Doing things like talking and dreaming. Now that he had power, his schedule was filled to the brim with work as he consolidated, protected, and grew that power, that life for him and his brother. Building Kaiba Land would be a distraction, and Kaiba Corp had only in the past three months opened it’s first game centers. Jumping to an entire theme park would be a risky investment, and a risk he was still not willing to take.

Moreover, as a nobody, the only people who payed him much mind were other nobodies, playground bullies who could only make their name by picking on those who were weaker or different (showing that he was willing to fight back no matter what usually persuaded those to find easier targets) and parents who had cared about him but not Mokuba (a simple insistence on his actual name and gender usually dissuaded those). Since then he had acquired actual enemies who required his attention. First, Gozaburo. Then, the Big Five. Now, on top of that, there was the boy who attacked him. What place did dreams have in that?

A minute or so passed in silence.

“If you don’t want to focus on this,” Kaiba said pointing at Mokuba’s laptop, “you could just eat the parfait. This is my responsibility. Not yours.”

“Nah, whoever messes with my brother becomes my responsibility,” Mokuba shrugged. “Moreover… I think I might have found just something.” Kaiba tilted his head and raised an eyebrow for Mokuba to continue. “Apparently Yugi was involved in a hostage situation a several weeks ago. Him and some friends were visiting a burger joint one evening that a criminal happened to hit up. Or rather a criminal owned the place. Another student from Domino high was blindfolded and held beside the criminal, while Yugi was forced to cater alcohol and cigarettes to the criminal while the police attempted negotiations.” There was a pause while Mokuba finished reading the article. “Weird.”

  
“What?” Weird could mean so many things. It could provide the perfect lead or dash all hopes.

“The criminal was caught after screaming that something bit his leg. And, wow… just… uh... read the rest,” Mokuba said turning the screen towards Kaiba.

The article indeed mentioned the criminal screaming about something biting him, and he even fired his gun under the booth. But, by the time he crouched down to look under the booth nothing was there. One of the bystanders said that they had almost been convinced by the criminal’s scream and had seen something there for a moment-something crouching, a pair of eyes- but that after the gunshot and a glint of golden light and shadow, nothing was there. They laughed it off to the reporter as getting caught up in the tension moment. Being held at gunpoint you were almost ready to believe anything.

But, whether or not something had been under the table, something had certainly changed about the criminal after the proclamation. His words slurred. He was sluggish, even as he continued to wave the gun in the air and shove it in Yugi’s direction. And, as Yugi knocked a bottle of vodka onto the criminal and tossed a lighter on him the criminal had been too slow to react. He had burned as the police finally had an opening to rush in.

Yugi said that he had panicked, and the police had ruled it self-defense. Perhaps a bit reckless, and they warned against future heroics, but the criminal had already shown himself willing to fire unprovoked.

“That certainly is… strange.” Kaiba wasn’t even sure what to say to it.

“I mean... yeah, but do you think it’s helpful? I mean do you think that...”

“Do I think that my attacker was involved? Do I think it will help us find him?” Kaiba paused to consider it. “It’s too early to say. It certainly raises more questions than answers.”

First, the only way it could possibly be taken as a lead was if you believed that there was actually somebody underneath the table. Under any other circumstance that would be easy to dismiss and perhaps he ultimately would. It was too odd. But, he had to admit that the memory of his own attack was also odd. If the boy was there, how could the boy have gotten out of the booth without anyone noticing? How had he been dragged so quickly into the alleyway? Would the boy really have… bitten the criminal? Kaiba’s hand instinctively went to his own neck. The boy was strange, and a part of Kaiba wondered if he could pull this off.

He didn’t like thinking about this, and he pushed it aside for later.

The second problem was that why hadn’t he heard of it before. The article was on the website for the local news channel, which could be accused of running too many fluff pieces, but it certainly wasn’t a tabloid. And, while some aspects of the incident were weird, the article didn’t push or hype those aspects, it simply reported. While Kaiba could debate whether or not someone had been under the table, he had no reason to disbelieve that the incident had happened.

Yet, he would have remembered if anyone had claimed that Yugi Mutou had lit someone on fire. It barely fit in with what Kaiba knew of Yugi. Though he supposed anything could happen when held at gunpoint, it did make Kaiba reevaluate things. Yugi may be a bit meek, but it seemed that he could act when needed.

Domino wasn’t small; it had its fair share of crime. But, certainly a hostage situation involving local high school students would have made bigger news than this, and even if Kaiba had missed it the first time, the class should have been ablaze with the story. This was the exact sort of thing that kids and teens ate up, and Kaiba could practically hear his classmates interrogating Yugi and Anzu now. You were involved in an actual hostage situation, how cool is that! What was it like? Could you see his gun? Did you really light him on fire? It was giving Kaiba a headache, and it didn’t even happen.

Kaiba frowned and scrolled back to the top of the article. The creases between his eyebrows deepened. “This is archived.”  
“Yeah, I tried finding the original before showing it to you, but it appears to have been taken down.”

Kaiba gave a short hum of affirmation, “Must have been a hard find.”

“Wanted to make sure I had been thorough with Yugi before moving on,” Mokuba shrugged, “He is our main lead.”

Another hum and Kaiba passed the laptop back to Mokuba. Time to finish his own task. He jotted out a quick program to collect the ID pictures for easier viewing, displaying a couple dozen on the screen at a time. He scanned through them all. None of them were his attacker. He pursed his lips. He’d try the other school’s next, but he might as well make use of the high school’s network, while he was in. Even if he found out the other boy’s name, he would still need to know his connection to Yugi anyways, and he wasn’t going to let Mokuba renegotiate his bedtime. “It appears that I at least don’t attend the same school as my attacker. I’ll see if I can get you some more leads to go on. You may have to check more internet archives. This might not be the only time this has happened.”

Mokuba’s eyes widened. “You think it was taken down on purpose? You think your attacker threatened them or something?”

“Not my attacker. Shadi. He withheld information about my disappearance and told me he was planning to interfere with the murder investigation. Not sure he did this, but I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“Murder investigation!” Mokuba squeaked, and Kaiba turned to see a horrified expression plastered across his brother’s face. Kaiba had been trying to avoid the topic. He knew Mokuba could handle reality, but he would rather his brother not have to. He also had been avoiding Shadi’s comments because even thinking about them acknowledged them more than they deserved. Still, it was too late to back out now and say nothing.

“There was,” Kaiba flatly admitted, “a couple dead bodies around me when I woke up. I suspect my attacker had something to do with it, but I can’t prove it. Apparently, they were fresh.”

Mokuba stared at Kaiba blankly for several moments. He titled his head. He opened and closed his mouth. Finally, Mokuba looked back at his own laptop screen. “What the fuck? I mean… why? … Who would even… and then cover it up? Do you think Shadi could have done it?”

Kaiba gave a noncommittal shrug. Well, that was an idea. Shadi certainly seemed to believe his accusations, but Shadi was also probably a good liar. He would have to be in order to so casually talk about manipulating evidence, and he could keep a straight face when talking about the grisliest of subjects. Though… why go to all the trouble of using Kaiba’s holograms if it weren’t to provide him an alibi? Why go through all the trouble anyways? If Shadi was planning to frame Kaiba for the attack, defending him and playing up the idea of vampires would be far less efficient than simply planting the murder weapon. “I couldn’t say, but unlikely.”

Mokuba paused for a moment. “Its ok if you don’t want to talk about it. It sounds fucked up.”

Kaiba grunted.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen death before. Just not quite this close. The videos Gozaburo had shown them of the carnage left by the weapons had always been behind a screen. They were graphic beyond compare and put the scene in the parking garage to shame, but they depicted events miles away. They couldn’t touch him nearly so much as the monster who had pulled the screen down and pressed play.

Even when Gozaburo had committed suicide, the conference room had been 25 stories above ground. A full three seconds passed before Gozaburo’s body hit the ground, though the moment had felt like much longer than that. The details of Gozaburo’s corpse were not visible from the window, and Kaiba had been in no rush to run down to take a closer look. Moreover, the Big Five were staring at him like they expected something to happen, so he called an administrative assistant from the halls to notify the police of what happened before attempting to get back to business. Still, he had stumbled over his words and felt a headache building behind his temples as the meeting progressed. He had been almost relieved when the police arrived to question him.

Again, he had been suspected of murder, but the Big Five did not want their hard work instituting him to go to waste and corroborated his story.

Mokuba rested his hand on Kaiba’s for a moment before returning to work.

Kaiba scrolled to Yugi’s information, then opened it as its own file. There was nothing remarkable about most of it. Yugi had below average grades, had no balance with the cafeteria nor books checked out from the library, and only a few absences. There was minimal disciplinary action, only the time he’d been taken in for placing personal items in another person’s desk rather than keeping it in his locker per regulations.

Kaiba now remembered that incident, where after a surprise desk inspection the teacher had found a package in Miho’s desk. The teacher had pressed Miho and threatened a punishment even after Miho had meekly claimed that she’d never seen it before. Since with the neat wrapping paper pulled around it, even the teacher had to admit that somebody else could have placed it there. The teacher proclaimed that if nobody stepped forward then Miho would have to face the punishment. A moment passed before Yugi got up. Then Jounouchi and Honda. The teacher ultimately decided to keep them after school ended, since she needed to start teaching.

Perhaps this was a hint that Yugi was willing to take action. No one had forced him to stand up

But it was a useless action. There was only one in three chance- if those standing were to be believed- that he had actually placed the package in the girl’s desk, so why take the fall for someone else’s mistake? That was just foolhardy. If it had been him, why put it there to begin with?

Moreover, the teacher made sure to leave one final threat: If she couldn’t tell which one of them did it, she might as well assume it was all of them, or at least hold them in contempt for lying. The heroics had also gone for naught; Miho would be punished as well. She should have cleaned her desk and removed the package before class- despite of course not having had half a moment to do so before the inspection began. In any case, whatever punishment she had decided on was not recorded in Yugi’s file, though the fact that he was still attending the school meant that she hadn’t dolled out her favorite if she had dolled out anything at all.

Even Kaiba believed at this point the teacher was pushing reason and simply looking to lash out at someone. He’d seen that often enough before.

However, because one of her victims was Yugi Mutou, she would have been a perfect target for his guardian angel. Kaiba was beginning to suspect that at least something had happened; the teacher had acted off for the next week or so. First of all, she was tired, occasionally stopping a moment to steady herself or pausing mid-sentence to finish a thought. When a student finally thought to take advantage of her state and whisper to another student, she had jumped for a moment before stating plainly that the student would be held after class. Still strict, but she didn’t seem to take as much pleasure in it as before.

“Check out to see if there is anything on Ms. Chouno. She is a teacher at our school known for dolling out harsh punishments, including expulsion. Yugi got caught in her crosshairs yet appears to have gotten out unscathed. Perhaps someone intervened.”

Mokuba nodded. “I’ll check. There’s a chance that even if something happened that it’s not on any public record.”

“I know. Find what you can.”

Kaiba continued glancing through Yugi’s file. There was one last piece of interesting information tucked away under additional comments, quoted directly from some email the administration must have received:

“Yugi Mutou along with several guests of his choosing have been invited to attend the Leaders of Tomorrow workshop. While attending the workshop, participants will have the chance to hone their communication skills particularly in the realm of negotiating with others, discover resources available to help them prosper, network with other up and coming young leaders, and take a stand on the issues that matter to them.

“Leaders of Tomorrow is sponsored and held by the nonprofit Royaume des Âmes. Royaume des Âmes seeks to unite the world in love by gathering those with the vision and skill to enact change.

“The workshop will begin on Saturday 13 January 2018, and transportation will be provided to the venue after school on Friday 12 January 2018. The current schedule for workshop events and attendance is flexible to best suit the participant’s needs, so there is a chance that Yugi Mutou could complete the work provided for him early, in which case we will notify you of his progress. That said, we predict that the curricula we have prepared should take two weeks to complete, allowing him to return home on Saturday 27 January. In order to limit distractions, Royaume de Âmes has limited access to wifi and internet at the site, so please make sure that Yugi Mutou and any guests accompanying him know what their upcoming assignments are as to not fall behind on their studies.

“Finally, Royaume des Âmes apologizes for contacting you so late. Yugi’s work concerning underrepresented and unrecognized communities only recently came to our attention. We were so impressed that we needed to make room for him to attend. Unfortunately, because of the scale involved, we do not hold these workshops often, so simply waiting for another year would not be an option. We greatly appreciate your patience.”

Beneath the formal statement was the organization’s contact information along with a signed note from Yugi’s mother giving him permission to go.

Kaiba considered the note for a moment. 12 January was today or rather- since the clock already read 1:58 AM- it was yesterday. Yugi had already left and wouldn’t be back for some time. Well, that was inconvenient.

What Kaiba and Mokuba had been able to find so far hadn’t been very helpful, but he had at least known one way to get to his attacker: through Yugi. Kaiba had taken the necklace and sent Sugoroku to the hospital; Yugi had given him some choice words and pleaded for the necklace back before Kisara escorted Yugi away; his attacker appeared. Like clockwork. Kaiba would hope that if things came to it, he wouldn’t have to repeat the whole process again; he was already worrying about any obligations he had to the old man for sending him to the hospital.

But, his attacker posed a threat to his safety and more importantly the safety and life he had built for Mokuba. His attacker made his blood seethe with anger, and somebody needed to make the boy pay. Kaiba would do what he had to.

In the best case scenario, his attacker had gone with Yugi to the workshop or at least would lay low until Yugi returned. That would give Kaiba time to figure out exactly who his attacker was, time to formulate a plan on how to deal with him, time to prepare. A lot could change in two weeks, and Kaiba would work to ensure that the change was to his advantage.

However, there was no guarantee that his attacker had gone with Yugi. Despite Yugi being Kaiba’s most definite lead, that was only one small view into his attacker’s life and priorities, and who knew if it was representative. Moreover, Kaiba had no other- or at least no other plausible- explanation for the dead garbage collectors, especially because the police had noted that the bodies were fresh. They were killed after Yugi would have left. And, if those had been placed to taunt him, his attacker would likely try something again and likely soon. He would have to increase security and especially his personal detail.

Kaiba frowned and tapped his fingers on the seat next to him. He opened up Royaume des Âmes’ website but found it rather sparse and uninformative. Oh, it had just enough to be official. A schedule of events. A picture of the program director. But, no information on where the workshop was to be held. No mention of previous years. Kaiba’s eyebrows furrowed.

He’d have to look more into that later. For now, he had other leads to follow. He considered for a moment checking the files of Yugi’s friends to find Mokuba more leads, but that was stretching the lead thin. If his attacker attended one of the nearby schools, getting his actual name would do far more good. Then, he could really track his attacker’s digital footprint.

He started modifying his earlier program so that it could more easily slip into the various school’s in the area and extract the information. It didn’t take too much, but he did need to make sure it was less sensitive to the location name given to the pictures than to the pictures themselves, since other schools need not use the same conventions let alone database formats. It was also helpful that he kept sample programs on hand for situations like these. It wasn’t that he hacked all that often, but he had discovered it a useful skill, one that required you to be prepared to be of any use in real time. Even knowing what to do and having lightning fast-fingers, code still takes time to write.

After fifteen minutes, he was ready to have it run and shifted through the pictures it produced. Not him. Not him. Not him. His attacker’s distinctive features made it easy to flip through the pages upon pages of profiles quickly, but still no one matched the visage Kaiba had seen. Twice something had caught his eye to look again, but no one had the boy’s dark brown skin, red eyes, or hair that seemed to proudly defy gravity.

He turned to Mokuba. “It is almost time for you to go back to bed.”

Mokuba looked back with an exasperated pout. “There’s still ten more minutes!”

“I know.” Kaiba glanced back at the program to note that the output file was finally produced. He left it alone for now. He did only have ten more minutes until he sent Mokuba to bed. “Just giving you a head’s up. You can pick up on the investigation tomorrow; finish your parfait.”

Mokuba held up his cup. It was mostly eaten, but a layer of pudding and crème left on the bottom. “This is my second cup, and there is still some left in the pot. Are you sure you don’t want any?”

Kaiba glanced at the concoction in Mokuba’s hand and shook his head. “We can put the rest in the fridge for later. You need to get ready for bed.”

“And, you’re going to go to bed too?”

Mokuba was leaning forward and looking Kaiba directly in the eyes. This time Kaiba had a plan. “No. I still need to get caught up on company business, which will probably take a bit. And, before you protest, me going to sleep early was not a part of the deal.” He could practically see the wheels turning in Mokuba’s brain, so he added, “It’s too late to renegotiate,” for good measure.

Here came the pout. “I’d was hoping by now, you’d realize you actually needed some rest. Aren’t you at least a little bit tired? I mean I joked about going cold turkey, but you usually aren’t that alert even during normal hours without your fix. And, it is two in the morning. Unless… that wasn’t going to be your second pot, was it?”

Kaiba rolled his eyes. “I am perfectly awake, and no, I hadn’t had any coffee before that. Plus, even if I were tired, I can’t afford to fall behind.”

“You can’t afford to get yourself sick either. Plus, its the weekend. You’re not going to fall behind!”

“We’ve been over this before, and I’ve made my decision. Kaiba Corp does not stop doing business on weekends and neither should I. My attack doesn’t change that. If anything, it means I need to be extra thorough. You know how tenuous things always are.” Kaiba heard a defeated sigh escape Mokuba’s lips. “Just make sure to get what you are working on done in the next five minutes, so you can get ready for bed. Regardless of my choices, you need to sleep.” Kaiba smelled the exhaustion wafting off his brother, especially now that the excitement from his return and the start of the investigation had died down. While he didn’t say anything and reminded himself that exhaustion didn’t have a smell, it affected him regardless.

“Well, it wasn’t like I was making much progress anyways. I didn’t find anything interesting at this point for Ms. Chouno, so at this point, I’m just scrolling through news related to Domino High to see if there was anything interesting. There was one article that caught my eye. It might be nothing- probably is nothing- and I thought I could find something better, but I might as well show you it now.” Mokuba turned back to the computer, presumably to pull the article up.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “So, what caught your attention?”

“Well, it talked about a student getting attacked by the school. Not sure if it had anything to do with Yugi, and it happened a while ago. But it was certainly weird, and there were some details that caught my eye. He had to get a blood transfusion like you did, and though the article said it was probably a knife attack, the picture kind of makes it look like he was bitten. ‘Reminded me of the other article.”

“How could a knife look like a bite mark?”

Mokuba rolled his eyes. “I mean it looks like there was a knife involved, and I might be reading too much into it. Just that he may have also been bitten. It would make more sense if you saw the picture.” Mokuba handed the laptop over.

The headline “Stellar Student Ushio Tetsu Withdraws from School after Strange Attack” splashed across the top of the page. Kaiba gave a snort. “I think I remember hearing about this.”

Mokuba perked up “Really?”

“I mean vaguely. People certainly were talking about it after it happened. The teachers warned us not to stay too late after school, not that I was planning to waste time there anyway. Kisara insisted on picking me up the next few weeks, but other than that I didn’t think much of it. He was a year above me and in another class, so I’d only met the guy once.”

“What was he like?” Mokuba titled his head.

Kaiba mulled the memory over. “Smart enough to see an opportunity when it presented itself, I suppose, but not clever enough to be of any use. He’d approached me after school not even a week after I’d transferred in. He’d heard that I had been homeschooled before and said that public school was different. That there was only so much he could do to tame the unruly masses. He offered to help protect me from the ‘harsh realities of public school’ for a small fee.”

Mokuba laughed, “And, that guy was a hall monitor? Sounds like a hired thug.” Kaiba simply shrugged at the comment. Kaiba honestly hadn’t realized there was much distinction, but the surprise echoing through Mokuba’s voice suggested that this was indeed unusual. “So, and then… I assume you turned him down.”  
“Of course, I told him that I highly doubted he had anything to offer worth paying for. He tried to push the issue but quickly realized his mistake and moved on. That was a month before he withdrew, and I never saw him since.” Kaiba glanced back at the article and brought his mind back to the topic at hand. Might as well read the article to see what it had to offer.

Tetsu Ushio had been admitted to Domino University Hospital late at night in shock after an anonymous caller had phoned in for an ambulance. The doctors gave him a blood transfusion and immediately set to tending his wounds- a deep cut across his arm that severed the basilic vein and a shallower cut beside it- but the severity of his condition meant that he had to stay overnight.

Not only had the police suspected that Ushio had been attacked with a knife but they suspected that the knife had been poisoned. Ushio’s blood had refused to clot making the surgery particularly dangerous. In the hours after he was admitted, black welts had appeared on Ushio’s arm, and while they disappeared by morning the vascular and muscle tissue in the area was severely damaged. During the night, the staff had to revive him several times throughout the night despite his condition seemingly stabilizing earlier. During one of the episodes, he temporarily regained consciousness only to yell at the doctors to get the rope off of his throat despite his airways being clear. He later screamed about fire when there was none.

When he finally woke up, Ushio stumbled over his speech and stared into space. He couldn’t remember what had happened the previous day.

The police were unable to identify the poison in question. Still, given how close Ushio had come to death, they strongly advised anyone experiencing similar symptoms to get medical attention as soon as possible, though to prevent panic, they reassured that the poison likely only took effect through direct contact with blood.

A temporarily hidden picture followed this block of text accompanied by a warning of potentially graphic content. Kaiba clicked the box for the picture to reveal itself.

Suddenly Ushio’s bloody arm was splashed across the page, bandages removed to reveal the extent of the damage. Two slashes went along Ushios arm parallel to the bone and passing over the inside of the elbow. Though the two were already closed with medical staples, the wound on the closer to the inside of the arm was clearly longer and deeper with two trails of blood welling up between the folds of skin. Kaiba’s eyes lingered there for a moment. He inhaled deeply before blinking himself back to attention.

A line traveled up Ushio’s arm from the deeper cut changing from a deep black to an ashen grey as it worked its way along, presumably following the vein that had been punctured. Meanwhile, radiating out from both gashes were dark tendrils. It reminded him of the dancing shadows on his arm during the transfusion, and Dr. Uramoto’s surprised comment. Perhaps that had actually happened.

Except… perhaps it was because this was simply a picture, but the shadows here seemed less alive. The shadow’s movement during the transfusion had felt good, while this only looked painful. He paused for a moment to remember what the shadows on his arm looked like exactly, and realized something else. During the experience, he had almost felt the shadows moving inside him, and they had been moving towards the needle rather than reaching away from it. Moreover, just because reality blended with his hallucinations, didn’t mean he was willing to believe everything he saw, and he had been out of it at the time.

If nothing else, however, the similarities were suspicious and pointed to a connection. Had he been poisoned? He hadn’t remembered his attacker wielding a knife.

Then, Kaiba began to notice what Mokuba was talking about. The dark tendrils were not radiating equally from the gashes’ lengths. They were, in fact, radiating from four points, a pair on each gash equally spaced. The drops of blood escaped from the pair on the vein. Moreover, there was an arc of four light indents connecting the points on the upper gash. The indents could have been anything, but if the indents were marks of the incisors, the points corresponded perfectly to the canines.

For a moment, the idea that someone could have bitten there didn’t seem so far-fetched. Kaiba’s lip twitched, and his tongue pressed against the back of his teeth. The roof of his mouth vaguely itched.

“You okay?”

The moment passed. Kaiba shook the thought out of his head before looking at his brother. “Just thinking about what you said.”

“Well, you had a really weird expression on your face.”

Kaiba shrugged before glancing back at the picture. “You do realize that if the person’s canines could have punctured the skin, the incisors likely would have too?” Mokuba tilted his head, and Kaiba gestured towards the points. “I assume you were insinuating the bite had something to do with this? Or did you think that my attacker bit people for funsies? Assuming of course that that actually is a bite.”

“Uh… I hadn’t really thought it through. I guess for funsies, but then again if the criminal of the other article was bitten, it might have had something to do with it. But maybe it had nothing to do with your attacker after all. And, it could have been a poisonous animal or something. Like a snake. I mean, wouldn’t it be dangerous to put poison on your teeth?”

“The word would be venomous, and as much as Yugi or my attacker throwing snakes at people is an amusing image, I doubt it. Snakes don’t have teeth like that. In fact, any animal that would have incisors as those marks suggest probably wouldn’t be the type to develop venom. And, why make the cuts if the bite would do the work anyway?”

Mokuba considered the question for a moment. “I ‘unno… maybe to distract from the bite marks. We aren’t even sure if it is a bite, and clearly the police either didn’t consider it or dismissed it. But, if you don’t have the right murder weapon, you might not find the murderer, right? But, this could be nothing. Maybe I was just reading into things. That’s a part of the reason I was trying to find a different article; the connection was flimsy at best. But, flimsy is all I could find.”

“An attack by a snake or whatever this was would certainly be more unique than even an attacker with a poisoned knife and thus would provide more leads,” Kaiba conceded. He could in fact picture Shadi making similar cuts as a part of the cover-up if Detectives Wasseem and Ito hadn’t already looked over the scene. Remembering Shadi’s comments, he decided to push the possibility of the punctures being bite marks out of his mind. “But, still unlikely. There is definitely a connection though.”

“Really?” Mokuba piped up sounding almost hopeful.

Kaiba gestured back at the points. “The bodies I woke up to had a similar pattern of punctures without the slashes. I also may have been affected by the same poison. I had a particularly vivid dream or hallucination following the attack including feeling at one point like I was on fire and another point choking. That could have just been my brain being my brain, but there also was a reaction during the blood transfusion... though not as bad as what happened in that picture...”

At this point, Mokuba was staring at him slack-jawed and wide-eyed. “You could have been poisoned?!”

That may not have been the best detail to release. “If so, at a lower dose. And, if you read the article, if it was going to kill me, it would have by now. My body was able to fight off the effects, and the instance with the blood transfusion was probably the last traces of it in my system. I’m fine now.”

Mokuba still looked mortified. “Prove it.”

Kaiba sighed taking the jacket off of his uniform and pushing back the sleeve to reveal the healthy if otherwise pale skin. “See. I’m fine. It tingled and looked weird for a little bit, but that was it. It didn’t even hurt.”

“I’ll accept that, I guess.” Mokuba pouted. “I know this won’t convince you to go to bed, but if your excuse for staying up is work, then at least do actual work. I want to get back at whoever did this to you as well, but you could spend all night trying to find the next clue and then the next. That’s what you’d do. At least for now send this to Kisara to deal with.”

Kaiba pursed his lips. He didn’t like the idea of his attacker being out there with him not even knowing who the boy was. The idea of not even being able to do anything about it. But, Kisara was competent, and even if she didn’t do it herself she would be able to assign the investigation to someone she knew could handle it. Kisara could also make sure he was safe. Handing it to her wouldn’t be doing nothing.

Moreover, Mokuba was right. If he let himself, he could get lost in this, spending the next days or even weeks tracking his attacker down and formulating a plan on how to deal with him. When he tackled a project it sometimes became all he could think about, and even finding his attacker’s name appeared to be a project and a half. And, he may eventually throw himself into it. But, with his company left unsupervised for the past four days and the Big Five left to assume what they will, he had plenty of urgent matters to fill his time with regardless. Plus, this will always be waiting for him tomorrow.

“I’ll email Kisara with what we’ve found before you go to bed. We’re now down to,” Kaiba glanced at the clock, “three more minutes. I’ll finish the article, and then you go to sleep.”

Mokuba still looked disappointed but didn’t press the issue further. “The rest of it’s just talking about how he was an above average student involved in hall monitoring and how tragic it is that he will have to withdraw for the rest of the year to recover.” Mokuba started to pick up his things. “I do have one more question though: do you have any idea what he did to anger your attacker?”

“You mean if he picked on Yugi or otherwise hurt him, and if so how? I don’t know. But, I’ll see if I can remember something, while you pack your things.” Kaiba shifted through his memory of his encounter with Ushio, noting only that he was the sort of person to abuse his position, though there was no guarantee that Ushio ever set eyes on Yugi.

But, considering Kaiba had had no previous reason to pay attention to Yugi, Kaiba wouldn’t have known even if the two had met. Whatever connection they did have wasn’t some incident the teacher made in front of the whole class with a record to jog his memory. It would likely have been an innocuous moment on the periphery of his vision that he never fully processed to remember in the first place. This was the proverbial needle in the haystack without Kaiba knowing what the needle would look like or if it was even there.

Still, the parallels with what had happened to him were too strong to try nothing.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes and glanced over the article’s header again, before his eyes landed on the date: 28 April 2017. Had anything unusual happened to Yugi around that time? Kaiba couldn’t think of anything off the top of his head, and he wouldn’t have made a point to notice or remember. But, perhaps some detail had stuck that he could recover on a more thorough search.

His memory had been labeled eidetic at age six, and the orphanage had pushed the point in attempting to foist him off on interested parents. Gozaburo had been impressed. Sure, Gozaburo thought the talent was good and useful but warned that it had its limits. Children often grew out of it, and even in the meantime, it was only good, not perfect. There could be holes and errors. It could be warped and twisted over time. Recollections were not artifacts of the past nor the pure truth but always reconstructions. Seto just kept more material around to work with than most.

If Seto had doubted him to begin with, Gozaburo’s curriculum had indeed pushed him to and past his limits. He learned to reinforce his memory with practice notes and calendars. He organized his thoughts fitting them into files and connecting ideas to better retrieve them. He created frameworks to better reconstruct what he had learned. He was good, but he needed to be better. And once he started doubting his senses, he realized that he was in an arms race not only with Gozaburo but also with himself.

He laced his fingers together in front of his nose and lidded his eyes so they were almost closed. Because he hadn’t been paying attention to those details, there was no organizational structure to help retrieve them. He rewound his mental tapes or rather traversed the web of ideas. Reviewing even the trivial details could uncover a useful association.

On the 27 April, the school had made the announcement regarding the incident. The announcement had been made first thing in the mourning as the students were settling down before Civics. The topic for the week had been elections and campaigns. He had been sitting in his usual seat at the back of the classroom looking over marketing proposals. It had been- was it only or already- half a year since his takeover. While the contract with industrial illusions was still another half a year away from completion, some of the short-term projects Kaiba Corp had attempted in the meantime were finally coming to fruition, and in order to establish a reputation in the gaming industry, the launches had to go perfectly.

Yugi’s own desk was one row ahead of his but by the window rather than in the middle of the room. The position allowed for easy daydreaming during class, but at the time of the announcement, he was talking to Katsuya Jounouchi who had yet to get back to his own seat several desks away. If Kaiba recalled correctly, Yugi and company seemed just as shocked as everyone else in the room.

Jounouchi had made some shocked quip, “Ushio could have taken on a bus. Who could have sent him to the hospital?” Or something along those lines.

The most memorable thing about it was the teacher’s response. “The police don’t yet know, which is why everyone should be careful these coming days. However, if you don’t get back to your seat before class starts, you might not be fighting a bus, but you will get detention.” Jounouchi at that point had scuttled across the room, while Kaiba had rolled his eyes. The teacher continued, “And, Yugi Mutou, will you be able to make it through class today without falling asleep, or should I be prepared to send you to the nurse’s office again?”

“No, sir. I feel better today.”

“Then I expect it not to happen again. If you can’t even pretend to focus in class, we will have an issue. With that out of the way, let’s get back to the election cycle.”

So, Jounouchi had at least seen Ushio before. That wasn’t much to work with, but it was a start. More specifically a start in the right place.

Over the past year, Kaiba had gotten used to Yugi’s gaggle of friends routinely clustering around that spot. They talked about everything and nothing, and just close enough and loud enough that Kaiba couldn’t help but overhear even when he was trying to work on other things. It is how he had discovered the location of the last white dragon necklace, and it is why he had some semblance of hope he could find something now. But, the day of the announcement would have been too late.

Kaiba tried pushing the days back, even briefly glancing at his old assignments and work projects to help anchor him to the correct dates. For a moment there was nothing. It was too far back, the details too jumbled; he hadn’t been paying enough attention to them in the first place.

But, then there was a moment when he remembered being particularly annoyed at their chatter because at that point he wasn’t used to it. In fact, though Yugi’s gaggle of friends had become a constant in the class, there had been a time before. When Yugi had occasionally talked to himself but otherwise fiddled with his games alone. When Yugi had almost seemed too shy to speak to anyone else. The day Kaiba had transferred into the class, he had stayed behind during recess and lunch to work, and Yugi had looked at him and mumbled something in his direction. Kaiba had shot him a questioning glare, and an apology had fallen out of Yugi’s mouth. In the three months between Kaiba’s transfer and Ushio’s attack, Kaiba and Yugi had come to a silent agreement or rather an agreement of relative silence.

In fact, it had only been a few days before when Honda and Jounouchi had stayed behind during recess to bug Yugi about not joining his classmates in a game of basketball. They had even picked up the small golden box off of Yugi’s desk, which Kaiba had taken as a signal for him to leave. Yugi alone was manageable, but if these blokes were sticking around, he might as well find somewhere a little quieter. They even managed to get Yugi to yell, even if that was only for Yugi to tell them how he wouldn’t fight back.

Tch.

If anyone were to fall prey to his attacker, why had it been Ushio and not these fools? Instead, Ushio had gone to the hospital, and suddenly the group along with Anzu Mazaki became inseparable. Still, such a sudden change in Yugi’s life so close Ushio being sent to the hospital in a manner so similar to his own attack… that would be a hell of a coincidence.

Kaiba reviewed the scene again, zooming in on each detail. There was another change in Yugi’s life that happened around that time: he had started to wear that godawful pendant to school. Kaiba couldn’t remember the exact date when Yugi had started wearing it, but he couldn’t recall the gaudy pyramid hanging around Yugi’s neck during the incident. Just the golden box that Yugi would occasionally fiddle during recess that happened to share the pendant’s golden sheen, stylized eye, and Egyptian motif. A box that Kaiba didn’t recall seeing ever again. And, by the time of the announcement surrounding Ushio’s hospitalization, Kaiba couldn't help but notice the pendant.

It wasn’t just that the jewelry was tacky. While Kaiba had always figured that Yugi or whoever had bought it had to have gotten it for cheap online or at some discount souvenir shop, there was a point to pushing limits, to grabbing someone’s attention and holding it. But, besides it not being to Kaiba’s tastes, how someone so shy could wear something so loud was beyond him.

Why that pendant would matter, Kaiba had no idea, but Shadi’s words echoed in his mind: “… the owner of the King’s Pendant has been notified and has taken action. Your attacker will be kept on a far tighter leash.” Of course, the King’s Pendant could be something else, and it’s owner someone other than Yugi. Kaiba had always assumed the object was worthless. But, Kaiba couldn’t think of anything else Shadi could have referred to, and again… it would be a hell of a coincidence.

Kaiba opened his eyes and pulled up his browser to google ‘King’s Pendant’. All he saw where necklace charms shaped like crowns. He added quotes around the term and suddenly found talk of a necklace from King Tutankhamen's tomb. Covered in precious stones and featuring a scarab, it looked nothing like the pendant Yugi always wore to school, yet the shared Egyptian motif caught his eye. His attacker’s darker skin and features suggested he could be foreign, and Egyptian wouldn’t be an unreasonable guess. But, it was owned by the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo, and Kaiba doubted they were meddling in his affairs. The other results were fantasy novels and Etsy shops.

It could be nothing.

All of this could be nothing.

Kaiba’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. Everything he found what appeared to be something significant, there were only more questions and more pieces that didn’t quite seem to fall into place. It was just enough progress to keep him hooked, to drag him forward to try the next thing to pull this puzzle apart, but of course never enough to have any satisfaction.

“Well, I’m packed up. Think of anything?”

“It seems something happened to Yugi then, but at this point, it is all coincidence and conjecture. Just…” Kaiba stared at the computer screen and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“No,” Mokuba firmly stated, “You aren’t going to work on that anymore tonight.” Kaiba glanced at Mokuba and back at the screen, before narrowing his eyes and slowly moving to exit out of the tab. He had other work that needed to be done, and even if he hadn’t, he already told his brother he would do this. He wouldn’t go back on his word. Kaiba composed the email to Kisara only pausing to get the relevant urls from Mokuba. He reread it twice to make sure it was thorough then hovered the mouse over ‘send’.

Mokuba grabbed Kaiba’s arm into a tight hug and looked up at Kaiba. “We are going to find who did this. I know we will. But, I want to make sure you’re safe first. Plus,” Mokuba’s worried gaze turned to a devilish grin, “If you work yourself to death, then I’ll have to take care of him by myself, and you’ll miss all the fun.”

That at least got a smirk out of Kaiba, “I certainly wouldn’t want to miss that.” He hit send.

But, the idea that safety could ever be found in stillness ran contrary to everything Kaiba knew. Safety was hard won by beating back your enemies, who multiplied like hydra heads. Beat one back and five more take its place. The moment in between, the moment of victory when the world had to acknowledge what you had done with the beast caught mid regeneration… that moment was glorious. That moment was brief. Safety required vigilance to protect it at all costs. Safety was not a condition to be enjoyed but an action to be taken. Safety was rarely ever all that safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was long and took a lot of work, but there are a lot of important scenes in there, so I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> One of the main ideas from this chapter, of course, is that events similar to those of season zero did take place but not exactly as they happened in the manga or the Toei anime. Some things have changed to reflect the nature of having a vampire/supernatural!au, while things continued to shift further as I developed this world. For example, the ordering has obviously changed since Kaiba’s first encounter with Yami/Atem occurs rather early in the manga, but here it is after even the incident with Miho’s package. However, I also picture that the incident at Burger World happened relatively recently (2 months prior to present) rather than just after the incident with Ushio.
> 
> I chose which events from season 0 to include primarily just based on what might leave a trace for Kaiba and Mokuba to follow. For example, the incident with Chouno wasn’t my favorite, but it was logical to mention given the progression of the fic. I did decide to deemphasize her vanity as the reason for her punishment/method of execution and instead focus on her abuse of power.
> 
> In general, writing these events from Kaiba’s perspective was fun.
> 
> Also, I have been joking to myself that you can see the exact moment I swat Death-T out of Kaiba’s hands, but while there certainly have been overtones in that direction, I don’t think it would play out quite the same in this universe. It would still be a shit show, but the events of chapter 1 were already designed to parallel the mind crush in some ways. So even if he is very pissed and still hasn’t shaken the influence entirely, he has more of a choice in how he puts himself together.
> 
> That last bit was probably a bit on the nose, but it also felt like the right way to end the chapter so *shrugs*


	9. Hypervigilance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba wades through the company records and corporate politics to figure out what the Big Five have been scheming and experiences the keen frustration of seeing both too little and too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definitely read the end note once you are done, especially if you are interested in having more ways to talk about the fic! Also, here's a link to some background music I forgot to add earlier: [ link to youtube ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L7mZH2u3Qc%20rel=)
> 
> Chapter Content Warnings: discussions of hallucinations, death, ect. on par with previous chapters.

Kaiba helped Mokuba carry his laptop to his bedroom, already thinking of his new responsibility barely moments after he dropped the previous one. Even if he had agreed to set aside the investigation into his attack, there was still Kaiba Corp business looming overhead. The day to day work could carry on without him, but contracts still needed signing, projects approving, and budgets reviewing. Isono had mentioned some projects that wanted his input, likely for technical advice, and on that note, he still needed to officially schedule the board meeting for Sunday. He would also have to write a public statement regarding his return to satisfy the bloodthirsty media and the panicky investors, though a statement would satisfy them for so long. He would need to hold a press conference sometime within the next week.

Except for the press conference, these tasks would all likely have to be done by Monday. He loathed the idea of heading back to school, but attending would reassure investors and employees that everything was back to normal. Plus, while ‘I am recovering from an attempt on my life’ could be considered a reasonable excuse for absence, it would wear thin the moment he went into the office.

  
But, before he could get to any of that, he had to deal with the Big Five.

  
Kaiba glanced over at Mokuba. Unlike the trip downstairs, Mokuba was trudging along beside Kaiba with exaggerated footsteps instead of bounding along ahead. While Mokuba had a better sleep schedule than Kaiba, he had never been excited about bedtime either, and like his brother held the opinion that there were far more interesting things to do than sleep.

  
“Did you notice anything odd at the company while I was gone?”

  
“I mean your disappearance put everyone on edge,” Mokuba tilted his head, “Were you expecting something?”

  
Kaiba shrugged. “I’m not sure. I certainly wouldn’t put it past the Big Five to dance on my grave.”

  
Mokuba smiled up at him, “Well, despite what Shadi said, you weren’t declared dead yet, and you won’t be anytime soon. Plus,” Mokuba started rolling his eyes. “They freak me out, and I try to avoid them. You are right that it got worse though. During the one meeting we had, they kept talking over me. When they did acknowledge me, Daimon called me ‘princess’, and Oka asked how I could possibly be holding up as if missing you would take away my ability to think. They also thought I needed Isono to coddle me, even though they had him running all around the building during the meeting. Just... ugh!”

  
In addition to establishing his own age as a non-issue, Kaiba had made sure to lay down rules to ensure that everyone treated Mokuba with respect and at the very least kept their snide comments behind closed doors. It seems in his absence, people thought those rules were optional.

  
“I'll remind them to hold their tongues.” Needless to say, the reminder would not be gentle. However, there was another possibility that tugged at Kaiba’s conscience. “If I were to be declared dead, the company would fall to you. Isono would be one of the few people getting in their way.”

  
“I guess,” Mokuba made a face. “But, the Big Five are always creepy. Like, I’unno, I think I would make a pretty good princess, but the way they said it,” Mokuba visibly shook. “Like, they wanted to lock me in a tower, and throw away the key. Isono was good, though. Stayed at the manor overnight and made sure that everything was going ok without acting like I lost all of my brain cells. But, you’re back now. Is he going to be staying tonight?”

  
“No, he isn’t. I need this time for just you and me. But, if the Big Five had set their eyes on breaking his guardianship to get to you, he may be coming back again on Monday.” Kaiba frowned, hating the game that the government made him play, as if he weren’t competent enough to look after Mokuba on his own. At the very least Isono knew the limits on the role he was to play. But, they were already nearing Mokuba’s bedroom, and as sometimes happens with Mokuba, they were drifting off topic. “So you didn’t notice anything out of the usual?”

  
Mokuba rolled his shoulders. “I guess I could give you the highlight real of what went down... Otaki tried to get a big boost in the hiring budget, and practically threw a fit when we told him to wait until you got back. Only Daimon managed to get him to calm down by reminding him to exercise a bit of patience. They also generally kept asking if I was really sure about continuing all of the current projects, which of course I was cause you picked them out, and they look awesome. I did leave some small suggestions in your office, but I didn’t tell the Big Five that. They asked if I planned to continue them, and I did.”

  
“I look forward to reading over your analysis when I next pass by the office, and you handled it well. They were probably planning to twist your words to get permission to kill the projects. Soichiro Ota, in particular, would have leapt on the opportunity. You are learning how to handle them.”

  
At this point, they entered Mokuba’s room, and Mokuba beamed up at him, “Well, I learned from the best.” Mokuba threw his arms around his brother’s waist.

  
It was certainly more hugs than he was used to in a given night, but tonight Kaiba didn’t mind. Mokuba was here; everything was alright, at least for now. All he had to do was make sure it stayed that way. He laid his hands loosely on his brother’s back. Mokuba giggled, pulling away to squeeze Kaiba’s fingers. “Bro, your hands are getting cold.”

  
Kaiba squinted down at them in confusion. He thought the shower would help with that. “I must have poor circulation.”

  
“Happens, I guess, but take care of yourself.” Mokuba pulled Kaiba back into a tight embrace before bounding off to bed. “Night!”

  
“Night.” Kaiba rested his hand on the light switch, pausing to make sure his brother had settled in before turning off the lights. It took only half a moment for his eyes to adjust and to once again see his brother’s sleeping form. And, nearly every detail of the room, from the desk and drawers to a sock on the floor, with startling clarity. Though the color had drained from the room, everything else was as sharp as before if not sharper. That definitely was not how eyes worked. Kaiba hesitated, recalling the incident in the bathroom. He knew his brother’s room well enough to walk across it blindfolded, but now he almost expected his brain to produce some twisted form or younger self to taunt him. He scanned the room. Except for the stray article of clothing, everything was where it should be.

  
Perhaps it was- like whatever was happening with the new smells and sounds- simply a minor hallucination and not a prelude to a larger episode.

  
In the best case scenario, the new hallucinations would dissipate with time. Kaiba was willing to admit that even if a few hours sleep wouldn’t cure him, it sometimes acts as a reset to help clear some of his current hallucinations from his system. But, it didn’t always work and had a major drawback: a new hallucination could follow him from his nightmares. While the dream he had while in the dumpster may have been partially fueled by the poison, he would not look forward to the usual programming either. Sleep wasn’t worth the risk.  
  
The other possibility was of course that he would learn to ignore them. It wasn’t like screwing up was an option.

  
Unfortunately, the way the hallucinations seamlessly blended with his other senses made it hard to tell where reality ended and the hallucinations began. It wasn’t like his eyes wouldn’t adjust to the dark eventually. Plus, the shadows almost felt easier on his eyes than the fluorescent lights.

  
At least at this point, it wasn’t worth turning the lights back on again. Mokuba had already fallen asleep, if not by- as Kaiba’s ear’s claimed- the rhythm in his chest slowing and the steadying of his breath then by the stillness of his form. There was no point in waking him now. Kaiba walked across the room, stepping over a few pieces of clothing that he would remind Mokuba to pick up tomorrow, and placed Mokuba’s laptop on his desk. Kaiba plugged the device in and made sure everything was in its place before heading back downstairs.

  
Mokuba and himself had left the lights on in the living room, but Kaiba also wasn’t planning to spend the rest of the night there. He had a home office; he might as well use it. Kaiba picked up his laptop and power cord before heading to the light switch. He hesitated for a moment, glancing over the room, before flipping the lights off. Again his eyes adjusted too quickly. He flipped the light switch on and off. It happened again. Kaiba frowned. His mind was probably just filling in the details with what he knew and expected to be there, but if he wasn’t really seeing it, there should be some detail that was wrong.

  
Why couldn’t he find it?

  
As Kaiba exited the living room, he knew that meant he should turn on the hallway lights, but he found that he didn’t want to. And, he supposed that if the detail was this hard to find, he at least wasn’t going to run into any walls on the way to his office.

  
In fact, though he started off scanning his surroundings with each step, the clarity remained, and Kaiba started to let his mind wander.

  
Mokuba’s comment about Otaki wanting to expand the hiring budget suggested that a look over old personnel files would be in order. After Seto Kaiba took power and started to change the focus of the company away from weaponry and towards games, there was a huge shift in the personnel as Kaiba adjusted the human capital. While Gozaburo’s use of Kaiba’s holograms in training programs and battle simulators meant that some of the necessary infrastructure was in place for designing entertainment systems, swaths of the workforce simply had the wrong skill set. Being able to design ballistic missiles and military aircraft didn’t guarantee you a spot in the new Kaiba Corp. Kaiba had fired those he could, and anyone with a pesky longevity clause in their contract had been sufficiently demoted.

  
However, those skills would guarantee you a spot in the Big Five’s vision. And, if they were preparing to execute said vision in his absence they would want to start reclaiming the brainpower Kaiba had cut.

  
While Otaki might not have gotten the budget expansion approved, if he was as serious about his plans and as impatient as Mokuba claimed, he would have at least made use of the budget he had remaining. It shouldn’t be too hard to enter the employee database and filter for recent hirings or promotions. Fortunately, if he found anything suspicious there, all it would likely require would be a new set of paperwork to undo. In the worst case that Otaki had been clever with the contracts, Kaiba knew plenty of ways to make someone’s life a living hell and thus have them leave on their own accord.

  
Kaiba finally reached the office and paused only for a moment to adjust his laptop in his arms and open the door. However, as soon as he stepped over the threshold, he stopped. He took a sharp breath, and his lips immediately turned to a scowl. He almost took a step backwards before cementing himself in place.

  
Something stunk.

  
The scent was faint but there was a distinct burnt undertone along with a putrid flavor hanging in the air. The smell of something not just inedible but contaminating everything in its path.

  
Unfortunately, Kaiba wasn’t sure if the smell was even real. Kaiba usually only ate snack type foods in the office to keep from passing out, if he remembered to eat anything at all. Rarely was the food anything that required heating let alone had the possibility of being burnt. And, he certainly didn’t remember bringing any food in during the days leading up to his disappearance. But, a morsel could have fallen in a crevice to rot, and that was certainly more plausible than smelling whether someone was healthy. As much as he wasn’t sure about anything he was smelling anymore, he didn’t entirely have a reason to dismiss it yet. And, unlike a hallucination, a stray piece of food was also a problem he could do something about.

  
Assuming he could find it.

  
The odor settled wrong at the bottom of his lungs, but Kaiba wasn’t going to let himself be run out of his office by anything so small as a smell. He had a workstation along with an extra monitor and mouse here. There were copies of many key files kept in the closet, and he had installed a small soldering station, so he could tinker with basic circuit design while away from the official lab at Kaiba headquarters.

  
Kaiba hesitantly sniffed the air again. Strangely the smell seemed to be coming from downward, even as it was already fairly diffuse. Kaiba lowered to his knees and indeed the smell was getting stronger the closer he got to the floor.

  
By the time he was on his hands with the laptop set aside it was clear enough for him to realize two things. First, the smell seemed to be baked into the carpet. Perhaps something had been spilled there, though it didn’t seem to be tied to any particular spot. Perhaps he simply hadn’t noticed it before it had had a chance to settle. In any case, it wasn’t as simple as picking up a couple crumbs. Second, he noticed that it didn’t smell generically rotten. It smelled of rotten eggs. His stomach turned slightly, and his muscles tensed as he pulled back.

  
What the fuck?

  
Kaiba definitely never remembered bringing eggs in here. Well, it was either that or sulfur, but that idea was even more ridiculous. Not only did Kaiba not remember bringing sulfur into the office space, but he would have actively avoided bringing sulfur or sulfur-based compounds into his office since over time they can damage electronics. He also doubted the cleaning staff would have reason to bring it in here, especially since the rest of the house didn’t smell this bad.

  
Another whiff of the scent floated up from below, and suddenly Kaiba remembered the bloodstain on his jacket, and how it had smelled tampered and wrong.. His frown deepened, and he pushed the thought from his head. Maybe this was all just his brain acting up. Still, if there was something he could do to make the annoying odor go away, he might as well do it.

  
Kaiba picked up his laptop and placed it on his desk, noting a whiff of the odor rising from the back of the office chair. After opening the window, fresh air and the smell of cut grass drifted in, masking the horrid scent. His lungs stopped protesting and stilled.

He grabbed a pen and piece of paper and scribbled a note for the staff to schedule a cleaning of the manor’s carpets. Kaiba glanced the note over and started to turn to place it on the front desk for the staff to find in the morning, when he realized what had happened. He’d grabbed the pen without a second thought, and managed to write a legible note, all with the lights off. At least, it looked legible now. It had been so easy to fall into a rhythm and forget that he shouldn’t actually be seeing any of this or at least shouldn’t be seeing it this well.

He mentally punched himself for the mistake. He needed to be more careful, though perhaps he could use this to finally convince himself that this wasn’t real.

  
Kaiba reached over to his desk lamp and tapped the switch, flinching away as the light blasted on. His eyes took a moment to adjust, but then there the note was as legible as before.

  
Kaiba turned the light off, and then walked over to the closet and retrieved a random print out. He had to squint at the tiny font, but could still read the first lines clearly: “Marketing Proposal for the North American Sector: While the use of holograms in potential media appears to be much anticipated by the North American public in theory, the current cost of production, maintenance, and use means that in order for the launch to be profitable, the distribution and marketing of individual products still needs to be done with care...” Bringing the paper back to his desk, he turned the desk lamp on and blinked.

  
The text was not any easier to read nor any different. Only a graph at the bottom of the page came to life, as he was then able to distinguish between the blue and red instead of seeing them as shades of grey.

  
That was certainly odd. Kaiba wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. He stared at the paper as if it would provide some explanation. He glanced over at the lamp, as if it could explain things. It couldn’t. If anything his eyes gently protested. He could handle the light, but the darkness had almost felt gentle. In any case, he definitely was not going to run into anything with the lights off. Kaiba looked back at the marketing proposal and stared some more before tapping the lamp off. He put the proposal back into the filing cabinet and brought the note about cleaning the carpets to the front desk.

Finally, returning to his work desk, Kaiba plugged the laptop into the workstation and rolled his eyes. How had something that possibly wasn’t even there, eaten up so much of his time?

  
In any case, it was time to get work done. He logged back into his laptop. He blinked at the light and turned down the brightness setting to the single digits. In the brightly it living room it had been fine, but now it was only straining his eyes further. From there, he gained remote access to his desktop at Kaiba Corp headquarters. Immediately he flicked open the database containing the personnel files and restricted the return to only entries with hire or promotion dates within the past couple days.

  
Scanning through the names, most were the low-level noise that permeated business At Kaiba Corp’s size, there always had to be a certain number of new hires just to maintain the proper staffing at the factories, cleaning staff, and- now that Kaiba had changed the company’s direction- customer service staff at the entertainment centers. People left; new people needed hiring. Moreover, the company moved fast, and one of the first lessons Kaiba had learned in the manor was that if you weren’t competent you got left behind. A thought whispered that if they were hired, the company had already deemed them competent enough and otherwise the company needed to reform its hiring practices.

  
Kaiba had to concede that that incompetency wasn’t the only possible reason for turn over. The garbage collectors had not worked for Kaiba Corp, but Waste Management Services would have to hire three new collectors to cover those positions lost. Positions that didn’t need to be open. Plus, you wouldn’t be able to pay Kaiba enough to go near another dumpster in his life if just because of the smell alone, so he supposed that being able to tolerate it well enough to continue to move heavy bags of garbage was a skill, a skill he had never previously considered. The turnover at Kaiba Corp certainly wasn’t from anything so dramatic, but why let go of people with useful skills?

  
Kaiba realized his mind had wandered and shut the thought down. It was useless and probably nothing. He had bigger things to worry about now.

  
Scrolling back through the employee listings, he finally saw a name that was out of place: Martin Alipbrand. A German name. Also listed as a consultant with a large salary, hired just over a day ago.

  
None of these alone was worth looking into. Kaiba had upon taking over the company had instituted initiatives to encourage international recruiting, which had actively been discouraged before. As such a new player in the gaming industry, Kaiba emphasized that they couldn’t afford to ignore talent just because of a name or an inconvenient location.

  
However, while these initiatives weren’t outright opposed, and he had made significant progress over the past year, the old company elites had dug in their feet. Hearing ‘But, that isn’t the Kaiba Corp way’ was at this point a sure way to land on the firing block, and Otaki would have been gone with them if he hadn’t large enough share of the stock to ensure his position. The Kaiba Corp way had been to build weapons. Kaiba Corp way had lead to quite a few rude comments on his blue eyes during his first year at the manor. Hell, the Kaiba Corp way still gave Kisara quite a few indiscreet stares and remarks due to her foreign features. Kaiba wasn’t sure where she was born, but she had proven herself again and again before and after Kaiba had taken power. Her origin, in the end, didn’t matter.

  
The consulting position was also vaguely suspicious. Kaiba Corp did occasionally hire consultants. As the company gathered more of the appropriate intellectual capital, hiring out was becoming less necessary, but for one-off needs finding a consulting firm with relevant experience was better than beginning the hiring process from scratch. It wasn’t inconceivable that a consultant would be brought in for one of the projects.

  
However, usually, they were then listed under expenses rather than payroll, and such a vague job description for so much money with this timing. The situation reeked.

  
Kaiba opened Alipbrand’s file. It was fairly sparse with the only new detail of interest being that Otaki himself had supervised his hiring. Kaiba narrowed his eyes and opened the attached resume.

  
Fuck.

  
Martin Alipbrand was a former employee of Schroeder Corp who had decided to branch out and offer his services more broadly. There was a chance he was even still on Schroder Corp payroll. Schroeder Corp that had been one of Kaiba Corp’s closest business partners and fiercest competitors during the Gozaburo years.

  
Fuck.

  
The Big Five were definitely trying to turn the company back into its former self. There was no other explanation. They had presumed Seto Kaiba dead and hadn’t even waited for the ink to fall onto a death certificate to start dismantling his legacy. If they had had even half a second after a death certificate had been signed or even if the search for him had dragged too long, they would have swept in like vultures.

  
Fuck.

  
Kaiba’s stomach turned, and he slammed his fist against the desk. Everything from the laptop to the table lamp momentarily jumped. The desk shuddered. Kaiba glared at the computer screen.

  
They weren’t going to get away with this. There was no way he would let this happen.

  
Kaiba flipped back to the main file, before grabbing a notepad and scribbled down Martin Alipbrand’s name and hiring number. He then returned to the wider database and filtered for the names of major weapon’s companies. Four more names appeared, most rehires that had gone elsewhere in the wake of Gozaburo’s death and were more than willing to return. Cross listing recent promotions with the usual longevity clause returned another handful. By the time he had exhausted his suspicions on this front, the notepad had almost twenty different names and numbers written down its side.

  
Kaiba’s hand shook for a moment. His whole body tensed, and his lip pulled back. The roof of his mouth itched.

  
The pen in his hand cracked.

  
Kaiba stared blankly at the pen for a moment before his lips turned into a scowl. Two long fractures lead up the white plastic casing away from where his thumb remained pressed against it. This wasn’t one of those junk pens companies handed out as promotional material to anyone willing to take one. It had been personally made, and the casing had been chosen to be thick with a delicate marbled texture. He had thought it of good quality and a tough make. The pen shouldn’t have broken easily, but apply enough pressure- Kaiba mused- and anything crumbles and turns to trash. Or it was trash to begin with.

  
As he pulled his thumb away, the plastic between the two fissures trembled, and a few pieces of dust fell away as a web of smaller cracks came into view. Kaiba pinched it between his fingers and pulled his hand back, ready to launch it towards the trashcan by the door, before he decided to give it another look. Kaiba hesitantly shook the pen, almost expecting to fall apart in his hand. A few pieces of plastic fell off, revealing the tube of ink underneath, and the plastic wiggled in its casing. But, overall the metal bands held everything in place.

  
A scribble on the edge of the notepad revealed the pen still wrote. It did its job. In the end, that’s what mattered.

  
Kaiba decided to keep it and move on. He looked back over the list. In his search through the employee files, he didn’t see any particular clauses that would cause problems. Fixing this situation would just be a matter of paperwork. The Big Five had been so busy celebrating his wake that they had completely overlooked the fact that he might not be dead. They were going to be in for a very rude awakening.

  
Still, the Big Five had done everything by the book so far and had taken steps to at least be blatantly obvious about it. With everyone’s attention on his disappearance, it probably would have worked for some time, but surely they didn’t think they could fool Mokuba, Kisara, and Isono forever.

  
Unless the Big Five had a plan to deal with them directly. Kisara was observant and influential in her own right; she even had a longevity clause of her own, which would prevent her from being entirely removed. But her power over the company’s general affairs was also limited by her position as head of security. So, she was definitely a threat, but the Big Five would be more worried about Mokuba- who would inherit all of Seto Kaiba’s responsibilities and powers- and Isono- who had the experience to guide Mokuba and the legal power to do so. Of course, the company bylaws meant that it would take significant work to take power directly away from Mokuba. However, Mokuba was still a child, and while he had more experience in corporate politics than most in his age group, he still had a lot to learn. In addition, the Big Five would have underestimated what skills Mokuba had obtained; they would have targeted Isono first.

  
Kaiba exited payroll services, and moved to budgeting and opened the running expense report for Oka’s division of lawyers. If Oka was planning something a trace of that would likely appear here.

  
Kaiba spent the next twenty minutes sifting through the nontrivial expenses, having to stop and investigate each because of his lack of familiarity with legal resources. However, eventually taking the time to be thorough paid off, and he stumbled across a consultation with a law firm that specialized in family services. It would not have been obvious from the entry, since by the naming convention most law firms followed, their name- Saito & Tanaka & Goto- didn’t give away that they dealt primarily in divorce cases and child custody. Oka had filed the expense report himself.

  
Now there was always a chance that Oka had visited because of trouble in his own home life and that he had decided to stick the company with the bill. Kaiba had never seen the appeal of marriage himself.

  
But, it would have been sloppy during the best of times to so overtly use company money on personal affairs. Perhaps in his absence, Oka had gotten sloppy.

  
Kaiba would consider himself a fool if he counted on that sort of luck, and he would rather be considered paranoid than to discover- as was usually the case- that they were really out to get him. If this was about Isono’s guardianship of Mokuba and the bylaws, that could be written off as company affairs, especially if at this point he wasn’t obviously trying to make a grab for Mokuba himself. No, Oka was likely going to fleece them for information on family law to augment his own corporate knowledge before he made his own move.

  
Kaiba got out of his chair and went back to the closet. His fingers quickly flit through the papers, before he found an old print out of Oka’s previous attempt to claim Kaiba Corp’s heir. Now more than ever, he was glad he kept records on hand of the Big Five’s previous schemes.

  
Glancing at the sheet of paper, Kaiba felt his stomach drop. He waited till he got back to his desk and held it up for easier viewing. Listed in bold was the law firm Saito & Tanaka. Kaiba glanced back at the expense report on the computer. While Goto’s name was missing on the older title, the billing addresses were exactly the same. It was likely the same firm that had simply taken on a new partner in the last year.

  
Kaiba clasped his fingers together and rested his elbows on the desk. This didn’t explain everything.

  
Previously the only action he had had to take to curtail Oka’s schemes was to notify the other members of the Big Five. None of them would want any of the others to have the sort of advantage that guardianship over Kaiba Corp’s heir would provide, and Oka certainly wouldn’t go through the trouble of starting the lawsuit for someone else’s sake. Unless the Big Five had suddenly gotten cozy recently, the threat would still be in place. Even if Oka thought that the other board members were less vigilant on this front than Kaiba, these records were on view for the entire board of directors.

  
Kaiba tried to mull things over some more but couldn’t quite come to a reasonable conclusion. Or at least he couldn’t find a satisfying one. Perhaps they were all acting separately, and Oka really did hope to fool everyone. If only life were that convenient

  
Sorting through Oka’s expenses and other reports again didn’t reveal anything illuminating. Turning his attention to the rest of the Big Five’s activities turned up a few suspicious blips but nothing damning. It had only been a couple of days after all, and they could start formulating and enacting plans without having to spend money or publish an official document. Phone calls to old business partners, personal visits to old factory sites, and paper contracts all wouldn’t leave a trace in the digital network.

  
Kaiba then realized there was one place he hadn’t looked and should before considering his review complete: his own email. He had sent the message to Kisara earlier, but he hadn’t had a chance to sort through the rest of his messages. Of course, the Big Five weren’t going to email him their plans. That would be ridiculous. But, Isono might have sent his own report on the meeting Mokuba mentioned. Or someone had filed a claim after overhearing mention of a suspicious policy. Kaiba wasn’t sure exactly what he was expecting, but he couldn’t afford to leave any leaf unturned.

  
So, he opened his email client and shifted back to Monday night. First, there were a few automated emails and a few of the usual requests and notifications. Then, suddenly an email thread from Kisara and Isono, titled “Where are You?” He opened it despite having a fairly good idea that this is probably the point at which they discovered he was missing.

 

* * *

 

From: Kisara, To: Seto Kaiba. Cc: Isono; Tues 8:04 AM

Seto,

Last night, you said you were just heading into the office to pick up some documents and finish some work that would take an hour tops. Mokuba was concerned when you didn’t show up for your ride to school. Not only would skipping school for company business be completely inappropriate, but you also don’t appear to have checked in at work. I tried calling, and your phone went straight to voicemail.

  
Respond to this email at least with your current location. It is a part of my job to make sure you are safe, and you already make that more difficult than it needs to be. This shouldn’t be that hard. It’s one thing to put yourself in danger for a larger plan and notifying me ahead of time. Simply refusing to check in is another.

  
I have cc'ed Isono in this email in case he knows where you are and can respond sooner.

Kisara

* * *

 

From Isono, To: Kisara, Seto Kaiba; Tues 8:37 AM

Kisara,

I have not seen Director Kaiba.

Have you checked in the holo-labs or in the engineering department? I hear there may have been progress on one of the big projects there, and he may have gone to check it out himself. That would of course not excuse skipping school, but it is a matter on which I could easily see Director Kaiba disagreeing.

From,

Isono

* * *

 

From: Kisara, To: Isono, Seto Kaiba; Tues 9:20 AM

Usually, he at least knows that maintaining a good attendance record is important for public relations. Still, I checked with both engineering and the labs. He wasn’t there, and no one had seen him.

Unfortunately, checking in with the mansion staff and security, it appears Seto never made it home. In fact, the driver who brought him to the Tower had never gotten a call to pick him up. Apparently, the driver figured that Seto was spending the night again and didn’t report it. Considering the timing of all this, I am going to head to that antique shop from yesterday and see if they know anything.

P.S. Seto, if you are reading this, contact us immediately. This is not a joke.

* * *

 

From: Isono, To: Kisara, Seto Kaiba; Tues 9:31 AM

Kisara,

Do you think something happened to him? Regardless, tell me how the visit goes.

If you think something did happen, it might be a good idea to call the police. I know you take a lot of pride in your position as head of security, but this could very well be bigger than company business. Filing an official report would also give something for our lawyers to work with if we need to take legal action if necessary. I know you know you have contacts for dealing with things discretely, but if something were to happen to Mr. Kaiba himself, I believe he would like a public retribution.

  
Needless to say, I will plan to stay at the mansion with Mokuba tonight.

From,

Isono

* * *

 

From Kisara, To Isono, Seto Kaiba; Tues 1:05 PM

They didn’t seem to know what had happened to Seto, but things didn’t quite sit right with me either. Like there was something else they weren’t saying.

  
I had someone check through the Kame Antique shop and the Mutou residence. Sugoroku Mutou apparently had a knack for finding rare and obscure merchandise, but there was nothing suspicious.

  
Also, this whole thing is reminding of some things I haven’t thought about let alone tried to get involved with for… well quite some time. Something that I thought was long buried. And, if my feeling is right (and for Seto’s sake I hope it is not), this is the exact sort of thing that should be handled internally. Even some of my contacts would be out of their league, let alone the police.

  
But, Seto is too much of a public figure for this to stay under wraps for long. I will have to file a report by the end of the day.

  
Staying at the mansion would be a good idea.

P.S. Seto, if you are somewhere absorbed in work or think this is some sick joke, you will be dead I swear. This is not funny. How do you expect me to tell Mokuba that I don’t know where you are?

* * *

 

From Kisara, To Isono, Seto Kaiba; Tues 7:37 PM

I filed a report at the police station. I’m not sure I trust them to handle this properly, but at least one of the people there seemed like he knew what he was doing. I will continue my own investigation separately. Hopefully, this resolves itself. Hopefully.

  
But, I will set my alarm to meet you tomorrow morning. Makes sure Mokuba is ok. I will be sending over a few more guards to police the premises.

* * *

 

Kaiba wasn’t sure what exactly Kisara thought was behind his disappearance, but her wariness automatically piqued his interest. Kisara had fairly think skin; she rarely worried about any danger that came her way. Yet, she also had a tendency to mother hen over those she considered her responsibility, which as the head of security for a major corporation included quite a number of people. While Kaiba didn’t see the point in her fierce protectiveness, he had to admit that she could be quite formidable in enacting it.

  
One time Gozaburo had taken him on a trip to view a factory under construction that would be used to make tanks, and before entering Gozaburo had thrown a disgusted glance at a couple of men leaning against the fence some twenty feet down. Cigarette buts littered their feet, and while Seto hadn’t made anything of the habit, they certainly and been there for some time. Seto almost caught a glimpse of tattoos poking out from under their collars. Gozaburo stopped and turned to Kisara. “Aren’t you going to ask them to leave? I can’t afford any disruptions on this project.”

  
Kisara shook her head. “I did get a call about some issues a couple of weeks ago, but those have been resolved. These men will not cause any issues, and if anything will help deter the local delinquents from trying anything.”

  
Without batting an eye, Kisara turned to the men and gave a short nod. One of then gave a shaky nod in return, while the other gave a lazy two-fingered salute. They shifted nervously under her gaze but didn’t budge from their spot. Gozaburo hesitantly glanced between Kisara and the men before coming to a decision. “That will do then.” He started to enter the compound, and finding Seto not immediately fall into line behind him, grabbed Seto by the collar of his shirt and pushed him in.

  
Kaiba had never had a chance to ask her about that particular incident, and truthfully he didn't care. But, he knew for certain that she had a few less than reputable contacts and an uncanny knack for handling matters internally. What could possibly startle her?

  
Still, Kaiba supposed that his disappearance was rather odd.

  
He had agreed that if he was to attend school that he would follow basic rules and procedures, including those regarding attendance. Though he would ditch school the moment he no longer needed it, his decision to attend was to ease internal and public relations, neither of which would be helped by a poor attendance record. Moreover, he had been able to schedule most of his work around school to minimize its impact on his life up to a few fewer hours of sleep. If he had really wanted to view the progress in the holo-labs he would have gone immediately before or after classes.

  
Moreover, Gozaburo had decided early on that if he was going to pour time and money into raising a potential heir, he wanted the investment to be able to protect itself. Kaiba had been trained in self-defense and practical martial arts by Kisara herself, while other experts had him his way around a gun and other formal fighting styles.

  
He wasn’t supposed to be defenseless. Kaiba knew that. Kisara knew that. There would likely be several more rounds of training scheduled to make up for his mistakes.

  
So, Kaiba pushed the thought out of the way and continued searching through his email for hints. There were a couple of emails from Isono labeled ‘in case he ever got back’ about the business proceedings of the day. Most of it pertained to the internal affairs of the various divisions or the fluctuations in the market, but the Big Five were occasionally mentioned. For example, the Big Five had finished the acquisition of several smaller firms that had been on their watch list. Kaiba would have liked to have been there, but the events weren’t shocking or revelatory either.

  
Kaiba then found another email from Kisara whose title ‘Strange Request from the Board’ immediately piqued his attention. He opened it and scanned its contents.

* * *

 

To: Seto Kaiba, From: Kisara; Thurs 3:05 PM

  
Seto,

I am not sure if you're ever going to see this. The lead detective is convinced you may be rotting in a ditch somewhere. But, if you do get back, I need to keep you updated on company business.

Due to recent events, the Big Five have insisted that the security staff be increased, and they pressured me towards some particular new hires. They consider your disappearance my failing, so I don’t have much ground to argue against them.

Honestly, they are probably right; I should have at least made sure someone was with you. Plus, everyone’s been on edge, worrying if this was personally against you or if they are going to be the next one targeted. The lack of a ransom note at least explain what is going on hasn’t offered much reassurance either. So, I have to do something.

But, that doesn’t mean I trust them either. I did background checks on all of their suggestions and nothing turned up. They do appear to be reputable security personnel. I’ve decided to hire them for now. Still, I don’t like the Big Five meddling in my affairs on a good day let alone a shit day like this. I’ve attached their hiring files just in case you notice anything I didn’t

And, please, don’t be dead.

Kisara

* * *

 

Kaiba’s jaw tightened. A move like that had to be some sort of power play. None of the Big Five were experts in security, so they shouldn’t have had the names of security officers to recommend just on hand. They should have trusted Kisara’s judgment.

  
He opened the files himself and searched through them for any detail out of place. But, Kisara was right. Despite how alarming the Big Five’s decision was he couldn’t figure out their plans were. Perhaps it was just them testing their limits now that they presumed he was gone, seeing what they could get away with. Perhaps it was something more.

  
Perhaps. That seemed to be the word of the day. So many questions raised and left unanswered. It was like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces, and Kaiba hated it.

Kaiba replied to the email suggesting that she keep them in jobs with minimal impact, clearance, and value until she had a chance to find proper replacements. A scanning of their contracts and the hiring procedure would likely find something out of place, even if it were just with internal handling due to the Big Five’s interference, so that they could be removed from the picture. If not, people eventually made mistakes. They could be faulted then. Whether the hires were reputable or not, the Big Five shouldn’t even entertain the idea that they held authority over the security branch.

  
Fortunately, the work Kaiba had done to set them in their place the first off could pay off a second time. They knew what he could do. He would correct and punish these infractions, and they would know he was back. Plus, with Kisara and Isono no longer distracted by a missing person search, he would have more eyes and ears on the ground with which to spot and crush resistance. He’d done this once. He could do it again.

  
And, with that Kaiba started to put together a plan.

  
Of course, any decent plan would require a dramatic entrance. Kaiba’s lips twitched into a smirk. Oh, how he would love to see the looks on their faces when they received the news of his return.

  
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get that pleasure. The Big Five would find out he was back before he even had a chance to go into the office. Scheduling the board meeting as high on Kaiba’s priorities tonight, and they would receive a notification including the proposed time, date, and agenda. Yet, even if he hadn’t already planned that, people talked. It could be the guard Arnold who had brought him his clothes. It could be somebody at the police station who overheard the missing person’s case closing. Might as well give them something to talk about.

  
Kaiba opened a Pages document to craft the Press release and then paused. He tapped his fingers on the desk. This was necessary but not big enough.

  
The press release would need to be thorough in order to keep the press off of his front porch at least for the rest of the weekend, and it would need to be released soon enough anyway. But, thorough rarely excited the imagination, and it didn’t get people chattering with speculation. No, for now, he needed to reveal only enough to assure people he was alive, enough to get the Big Five worried, to tease at the truth without tipping his hand. Then, let people chatter away at the details. Let the Big Five worry about how much he knew. When the press release finally dropped, when the board meeting came around, people would pay attention.

  
Kaiba tapped on the desk one more time, before opening a new tab in the browser for Twitter. He didn’t use social media often, since outside of promotions it was a waste of time, but this would definitely be worth it. He typed out a new tweet:

  
“To those celebrating my disappearance: despite your plans, I’m not dead yet.”

  
The public would speculate that it was about whoever had caused him to go missing, and the Big Five would think it was directed at them. Two birds with one stone. And, if it grabbed his attackers attention and brought him out of the shadows, all the better.

  
However, it needed one last finishing touch.

  
Even in his current state, adding a selfie would help it gain traction. Whether people liked the picture or thought it was shit, people would talk. They would retweet it even if just in ridicule, and his message would spread. Hell, his sickly appearance would only fuel the speculation on what had happened.

  
Of course, this would be easier with his phone, but it was probably still in the alleyway, crushed, or stolen. Kaiba would make due with what he had. A new phone could be ordered tomorrow.

  
Kaiba even got so far as to pull up the laptop’s camera, before he got a startling reminder that his eyesight wasn’t acting right. Despite him being able to clearly see the desk and room around him, the screen was mostly black, except for the slightest haze of light streaming in through the window. He thought for a moment that at the very least the computer screen should be lighting the room, but then he remembered turning the brightness down to the single digits. Even worse, in the middle two pale disks stared back at him.

  
Why was his brain like this? Kaiba glared for a moment, before muttering “yeah, fuck you too,” under his breath. He hesitantly reached for the lamp. Kaiba was willing to acknowledge a pattern when he saw one, but he was ready to throw something if the hallucination followed him here as well.

  
It didn’t, and Kaiba blinked in relief. At least that went to show that it was actually a hallucination. The world made sense.

  
Unfortunately, while the image wasn’t dark and twisted, it wasn’t pleasant either. For one the lighting was harsh against the dark background, and the lamp cast deep shadows and brazen highlights, contorting his image. The camera- perhaps due trying to adjust for the sharp color gradients or simply poor quality- made his already pale skin look ghostly. It certainly wouldn’t convince anyone he was alive.

  
Kaiba got out of his chair and turned the turned the room light on instead to defuse the lighting and give the camera more material to work with. His skin still seemed paler than it should be, but at least now the picture would be intriguing rather than haunting. He sat back in the chair, turned his lips into a hardened smile, gave the image the middle finger, and snapped the picture. He then tried a few similar poses and takes, adjusting the position of his hand, the tilt of his head, and his distance from the camera. After half a dozen attempts, he finally settled on one to crop and add to the tweet. Kaiba pressed post and waited a couple moments before notifications started coming in.

  
Kaiba didn’t bother reading the individual comments; he knew people hated him anyways. Yet, as he moved back to his other tasks he kept the Pages window slightly smaller so he could watch the number on the bell rise higher and higher.

  
While drafting the press release, Kaiba debated the lines between how much information he wanted to share, what he needed to provide to keep the press content, and what he thought was nobody’s business. All of Shadi’s talk of vampire nonsense would, of course, stay under the rug, since even giving it enough credibility to mention it would be humiliating.

  
Yet, there were also issues of how many details to release on what had happened leading up to the attack? (Here Kaiba decided to come completely clean on what had happened. He hadn’t had a chance to read the articles on his disappearance to know what was public knowledge, but most of it could be publicly verified anyway. No point in hiding.) On his attacker's unique appearance? (Ultimately, Kaiba decided that the press wouldn’t do much to help him track his attacker down. Pointing out his attacker’s similarities to Yugi Mutou and thus putting pressure on Yugi may pull his attacker out of hiding, but after what Kaiba had done to Sugoroku, he hesitated on implementing that plan so early. Too much debt already.) What to mention of the doctor’s visit? (Kaiba decided on saying only that he had gotten a blood transfusion. Everything else was irrelevant, nonsense, or- with the strange euphoria- embarrassing.)

  
After finishing the draft, he looked it over twice for revisions and edits before sending it to the Kaiba Corp press secretary to handle further. Then, he reserved the main conference room for a board meeting, and prepared an email to automatically send to the Big Five at 9 AM tomorrow. Give them time to hear the news first.

  
After emailing human resources to send him the necessary paperwork on firing or demoting the list of individuals, Kaiba filed the list of names and the document on the law firm away in the closet. He then moved to the light switch ready to absentmindedly turn the lights off, before he did a double take and realized what he had been about to do.

  
That wasn’t normal. His eyesight wasn’t acting normal. In fact, something was clearly wrong with him. More wrong than usual at least. And, by letting himself believe it, he was slipping up.  
He started to walk back to his desk.

  
Yet, he had been able to read the documents, and despite his best efforts, he had not been able to find any reason to disbelieve his eyes, at least this time. His eyes could, in fact, be adjusting remarkably quickly. And, something tugged at him, teasing that the dark actually felt more natural. Like that was how things should be. He tried to shake the thought off, even pinching himself in frustration. Somehow found himself at the switch again and turning the lights off.

  
Returning to his chair, Kaiba at least appreciated that the task was done. The Big Five were still there and still a threat, but they would be contained for now. Time to return to the usual company business.

  
In fact, as he had been scanning his emails for information the Big Five’s activities, Kaiba had seen some messages from the engineering department asking for advice. Digging his teeth into one of the companies projects would be a very welcome distraction. Kaiba flipped the email client open and pulled up the most promising option: “Power and Data Transfer Problems on Project DM::DA2.01 (Rename in Order?)” The project with Industrial Illusions had been completed to Pegasus’s satisfaction, but there were some issues Kaiba still felt the need to improve upon. Even if Industrial Illusions didn’t take an updated product, most of the issues were technical with no clear viable solution. Any potential solution would keep the company at the forefront of technology.

  
And, if Pegasus accepted the improvements, all the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, and foremost, I have created a discord server to talk about the fic, some of the ideas explored in it, as well as the ideas behind techno-sorcery. The server name is 'Kaiba's Occult Nonsense' as the main theme connecting this fic and techno-sorcery is Kaiba being very magical but also very in denial. 
> 
> I have a [ description of the server ](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lvG9o2JF1u0pXcvaZ8irnOQwhtL1DP9Xkr2O5owrJwU/edit?usp=sharing) to help people get a sense for if the server might be right for them. If after reading the server description, you want to join, then the easiest way to do that would be to get the link would be on tumblr (my url is techno-sorcerer) or on discord (Microraptor Glider#7720). I would be glad to add you. I've had plenty of amazing conversations talking about this fic, and I would love to have more. If you don't want to join though, no pressure. There is still the option to leave feedback in the comments here or on tumblr, or however.
> 
> Next, was considering trying to make pictures so that the emails looked like they were pulled from an actual email client, but at this point I figured it was better to get it up and try to make the pictures later. Perhaps later?
> 
> With respect to cameras, I decided that they work like eyes and thus pick up what one would usually see unless there is something reflective going on in addition to that. I decided this one two accounts: 1) Kaiba would not be able to avoid having his picture taken in the long run and 2) there's something almost symbolic about having it be the act of reflection that reveals things.
> 
> In any case, I am taking a short hiatus as I finish the semester but definitely plan on writing more as soon as I am free. I hope you enjoyed this foray into corporate politics. I any of you know me, you might have an inkling of what might be touched on in the next chapter, though I think I might still have a few secrets up my sleeve as well :)


	10. Box of Light Part 1; Holographic Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After everything else that had happened tonight, Kaiba discovers that his disappearance shook loose some new information: much of the progress on the Duel Box project- let alone its potential upgrades- had been purely illusory. Given the sheer size of the cover-up, Kaiba has to wonder how many people knew about this and didn't tell him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No specific content warnings for this chapter. Tell me if any are needed.

Subject: Power and Data Transfer Problems on Project DM::DA2.01 (Rename in Order?); To: Seto Kaiba; From: Chief Kuwabara; Thursday 1:05 PM

Director Kaiba,

I am emailing you with news on the attempts to update the hardware for the Duel Box. While I hear that you are currently missing, I am making sure that everything stays on schedule in your absence. Moreover, though your input on the following subjects would be greatly appreciated, we will continue to push forward on the issues discussed below without you and understand that you will hold our results to only the highest standards, no excuses permitted.

Some of this news is indeed good. The team successfully implemented your suggestions on how to rescale the holographic projectors. Using a main projector enhanced by several auxiliary projectors mounted around it provided a more efficient model energy wise than having several projectors filling in the shapes from various angles.

The team needed to fix a bug that led to the tops of projected objects either fading out or becoming distorted before they felt that it was ready to bring to you. However, because two potential solutions have been proposed, it would be wise for you to review the options as soon as possible as to prevent wasting company resources on a project you deem nonviable. Knowing which- if either of the two approaches- you prefer would also affect how we solve the other problems with the projection systems. I have included a video of the issue along with write-ups of the two proposed solutions.

Until I receive your feedback or receive other instructions, I will provide some funding for both, though more resources will be given towards solution B, which appears to be more immediately viable. Long-term research into solution A may help improve the general efficiency of the projection systems and reduce the number of projectors needed to produce a lifelike image, but it also puts a drain on power resources and will delay any possible release.

This leads to the main issue being faced by all the project teams: the sheer scale of the energies and processes involved. When the hardware was also on the scale of the Duel Box, this was a secondary issue, but the teams are routinely running into walls when trying to achieve the same results on a portable scale.

This is not to provide an excuse. The teams have made large strides, and the high expectations have pushed them to make what would seem impossible feasible. We will continue to find ways to eliminate these obstacles or work around them.

However, progress has not always been as quick as expected, and any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated. While you are fully aware of the energy needed for standard holographic projection, and your personal work on the first Duel Box prototypes means you are intimately aware of the project’s nuances, the project’s scale has grown dramatically in the past year and a half since you became CEO. The small gaming releases you had encouraged before are nowhere in the same league as this endeavor.

At the same time, Soichiro Ota has especially discouraged discussion of the unconventional nature to the point of censorship, and their unusual nature makes them hard to explain directly (even with your vast experience and knowledge) the few times we have had the chance. As such, while you are particularly adept at these sorts of problems, I worry that the exact nature of things has been kept from you. Since it is partly a matter of scale, I am sorry if it seems as if I am reiterating things you already know, since even then you may not be aware of the full extent of the problem. So, I ask that, if you get back and have a moment in your busy schedule, you review the data from the Duel Box project. It may not be what you expect.

(If I may continue being so frank, while Ota has cracked down on the department particularly hard since your disappearance, he seems particularly pleased that we now have to turn to him for advice rather than you. He was a brilliant engineer, but his knowledge too old school and arcane to be useful for these projects and is often counterproductive. Despite his claims otherwise, everyone can tell Ota doesn’t completely understand the work you started let alone offer insight on it.

Regardless of anyone’s feelings on personally meeting with you, everyone knows that cluing you in- if we were able- would greatly progress our work.)

In other projects, the teams can adjust the projection levels in terms of resolution detail and scale so that the projects could feasibly be released within the appropriate time frame and budget. While having lifelike graphics where possible boosts our reputation as a quality gaming company and are one of the key allures of our products, the game mechanics can still play out with inferior graphics. If that were possible, we would consider that an option here.

However, as counterproductive as it may seem, the precision graphics in Duel Monsters are central to how the whole system functions. Without it, everything falls apart; there is no product. Even managing the lifelike projections without crashing the system (either due to overdrawing power or running out of memory) requires looping the graphics into a form of circular programming, and systems such as regulating the effects of how a declared attack plays out loops through the graphics software. In fact, here the exception proves the rule: in order to quarantine out of control objects and illegal maneuvers, the first line of defense in the program is to selectively modulate the graphics capacity and power, therefore disrupting the rogue systems.

We can’t even redesign the system to work around this inefficiency since it has to be compatible with the specs supplied by Industrial Illusions. The information contained in the cards are indeed small miracles and an incredible amount of foresight went into making them. But, they also tie our hands quite a bit.

So, simply reducing the graphics load and moving forward is not an option.

Unfortunately, even with the circular programming, the energy required to maintain these holograms is enormous. The Box itself even needs to be powered by industrial strength cables, which are likely a bit bigger than you have seen. So, it is hard to conceive that- even if a more portable device could be manufactured- such a device would be able to sustain itself on its own power. Moreover, in addition to electricity, storing the necessary computational power in a device small enough and light enough to be carried would also require the device to expend enormous amounts of energy simply in cooling.

The second problem is with regards to the data transfer facilitated by the chips themselves. Using your program as a base, we have been able to achieve download speeds of 20 Mbps, which would be fine if the game didn’t have to run in real time. In order to work around this, we had used multiple processors in a nearby location to manage the process. Attempting to mount the processors onto the portable device has made it too heavy to carry, but the running cords are still too much a hassle for a product aimed at the public.

Attempts to boost the download speed have been largely unsuccessful. One particularly promising attempt had almost peaked at 0.8 Gigabytes, but the resulting data turned out to be gibberish. Because you designed the original hardware and software able to interface with the cards, you clearly understand the issue quite well, and it is your work that brought the company this far. But, with the current push on the project, perhaps revisiting the issue may be in order.

I have assigned some of our best minds to these problems and will push them to redefine the possible, but your input would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, considering the device no longer is in the shape of a box, perhaps a bit of renaming is in order, I’ll wait on making anything official, so you can do the honors.

Chief Kuwabara

Project Supervisor, Kaiba Corp

 

* * *

 

 

Kaiba narrowed his eyes as he read through the email. He could almost smell Kuwabara sweating through the screen.

While Kuwabara was never casual with Kaiba and kept his distance, he also was also not easily intimidated. Or rather he hadn’t so far let fear get in the way of results. In fact, Kuwabara wasn’t the only one to visit Kaiba’s office for technical advice, but Kuwabara would often accompany junior engineers to Kaiba’s office when discussing technical issues. A few times Kaiba suspected that Kuwabara wasn’t involved with that aspect of the project, but when pressed he had at least been able to talk sensibly about the issues whether he was assigned there or not.

It was a set up that worked for Kaiba. Kuwabara received his fair share of chew outs, but the junior engineers were even worse to deal with. They either treated Kaiba like he was a peer- or worse kid- instead of their boss or they completely lacked spine and shook in their seats the whole time. Even with Kuwabara there he had been forced to fire a handful on the spot, but when one got the memo and could actually hold their brain cells together, Kaiba could then see a future for the employee and the company.

Unfortunately, Kuwabara usually gave him more to work with, and mixed with Ota’s crackdown, that entirely explained Kuwabara’s jitters.

However, the situation also didn’t put Kaiba in the best mood and sorting through the related documents and data only made things worse. He opened the video attachment to see a monster projection sitting atop a circular device. Or rather, he saw the bottom half of what he assumed was a monster. From the brown hair covering its legs and the short metal armor around its waist, Kaiba assumed it was Battle Ox, but the hologram quickly faded above the navel, flickering and wavering in and out of existence.

Kaiba rubbed his hands over his face.

He knew this project would be a challenge; the company needs to take on challenging projects to push the R&D department forward. Otherwise, things get complacent.

Moreover, this project was the precise sort of challenge that would put the companies products more in line with market demands. The company was still a ways off from making holo-technology marketable to the general public, but that is where they needed to head. While his gaming centers had experienced some success, as soon as the fascination with holo-tech wore thin, people would stop. People would much rather play games in their own homes or on their own devices then drive to a center and pay to use someone else's technology. Even making the devices just slightly more portable would be preferable.

Some problems with power and computing were understandable, expected even. That’s what happened when one attempted to receive the same sort of output out of a smaller device, especially when the output was something as intensive as holograms. Hell, though the technology had come a long way since he first started. Kaiba remembered all the manor’s lights flickering during his first tests on holographic technology, and those had just been some suspended lines in the air.

But, having the holograms actually render was the most basic step.

In fact, technically the height or lack of auxiliary projectors shouldn’t be an issue. The light would still bend, but... Kaiba let out a sigh. Pushing the light at greater distances and at greater detail required greater electrical power and processing power. He had been under the distinct impression that while compression would cause some issues, it wouldn’t completely destroy the holograms. Maybe degrade them slightly, but not completely destroy them.

Except there were Kuwabara’s comments about the program’s dependence on the graphics. He remembered in his first tinkerings with the program that for some reason the secondary programs would refuse to run until the holograms started projecting at which point they ran with startling efficiency. But, Kaiba thought the project teams had solved that issue.

Kaiba knit his fingers together and glowered at the computer. Apparently not.

The proposals in the email made enough sense. Solution A was to boost and review the projection software so it could project farther and retain the details all the way to the top; Solution B was to add another auxiliary projector either supported by a retractable pole or drone with a cable to project downwards.

The one piece that Kaiba would add would be to literally rescale the graphics back to the size in the Box. The Battle Ox in the video was life-size or rather the size one would expect such a creature to be if it existed, where all of the monster holograms in the Box could stand on the palm of your hand. Certainly, if they could make the hologram work and work efficiently, the life-size one would be quite striking, but getting the holograms to work was the priority. Kuwabara talked about difficulties rescaling, but they had already managed to make it that small, so maintaining that shouldn’t be an issue.

Kaiba pressed the tips of his fingers into the backs of his hands. These workarounds shouldn’t be necessary. This shouldn’t be an issue. How could things have gotten so bad? He ground his teeth together feeling his jaw tense. This was not what he wanted to deal with tonight.

Kaiba started to type a reply or rather a tirade but then realized that if someone was going to lose their head he might as well lay the whole platter at their feet. And, problems were like ants or termites. Or roaches. If someone was willing to tell him one problem, there were likely fifty others hiding in the woodwork. So, while he had previously dismissed the need to look at the Duel Box data, thinking nothing interesting would be there, he now didn’t know what to expect.

The data on the Box itself was exactly how Kaiba remembered it, but when he opened up the diagnostics from the last run, something caught his eye. The units were wrong next to two of the meters. Megawatts and terahertz instead of kilowatts and gigahertz.

The fields were labeled DA power and DA processing. Given the project code of DM::DA1.75, Kaiba entertained the idea for a moment that those were merely the totals for the other fields; they did fluctuate in tandem with the Box’s main processes. But, a quick mental calculation showed that the other relative fields only added up to barely a tenth of the fields in question. Kaiba rolled his lips. These were something else. But that begged the question: what the fuck could those meters have actually been monitoring?

Kaiba tapped his fingers on the back of his hand, then unfurled his hands from each other and tapped the edge of the desk.

Finally, he pulled up the installation specs for the box. The electrical power had to be running something, some piece of hardware within the device which was likely another set of processors by the units on DA processing. If he could just find it in the specs, he could start to figure out what was going on.

At first, nothing seemed out of place. Everything was exactly as it was when he had approved the plans. Except nothing would be different. According to Kuwabara, this was an ongoing problem and the whole system would collapse without this extra processing. Kaiba’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. Where could a set of processors capable of 2.6 Terahertz worth of computing be hiding? The Box wasn’t even that big. Kaiba flipped through diagram after diagram, parts list after parts list.

He almost felt his eyes glaze over before he finally saw even the hint at what it could be: not a processor but a large bundle of fiber-optic wires leaving the box collectively labeled ‘DA cable.’ Finally, a thread to tug on.

Unfortunately, the cable wasn’t labeled using standard procedure. Even the power cables for the box had instructions on how to hook it into the buildings power supply, but this set of cables was only labeled without further comment. Kaiba couldn't even find another reference to them in the installation guide after searching for them both by name and under a search through all cable types. That alone was highly suspicious. Somebody was trying to hide whatever was on the other end.

If the answer wasn’t going to be in the installation manual, then he could at least see where the other ends were going in his own facility. Four test Boxes had been installed in the R&D section of the Kaiba Corp Tower, and they had even hosted a small tournament of Beta testers on site.

It had been an odd affair, though one that had allowed him to showcase the nearly complete project to Pegasus Crawford.

The testers had been a bizarre and shady group, including among others: a short kid with green hair and shifty eyes and a hick with a flag bandanna that everyone else kept an arm’s length. A few of the participants had engaged with paranoid arguments with Kisara over security as if they were expecting an attempt on their lives. Kaiba was more likely to believe them to be simple recluses not used to being exposed.

Pegasus had assured him that they were the best the industry had to offer and that they had shown remarkable skill with the game so far. “It should be quite the spectacle. May even turn that frown upside down.”

Kaiba had rolled his eyes. Hosting the event, he couldn’t get too wrapped up in things. He only let himself participate since testing the system from within during a live duel would be quite instructional, though seeing people’s expressions as they realized how fully he’d mastered Pegasus’s new game- as they saw their upcoming defeat- did provide a moment of satisfaction. A few were already quaking in their boots before he played a card. He had set up plenty of cameras and diagnostic equipment to review the data tournament later. Technicians hovered like shadows, keeping everything running smoothly.

Pegasus then gave a more somber shrug. “They will indeed test the limits of your devices. Better for holes to surface now with both of us here to deal with them, then to find them after the release. But, I would keep your eyes open, Kaiba-boy. When searching for a needle in a haystack there’s a chance your finger might get pricked.” Kaiba glanced over at Pegasus, trying to decide if the other CEO was taking a dig at his tech. “Still, while they are a bit smaller than I imagined from the reports, I believe in your beauties. Far better than anything I could have come up with. They take my cards like a seed and then grow it into a beautiful flower. You bring my work to life.”

Kaiba let out a humph, “In addition to the increased efficiency, we figured this size provided for a more intense dueling experience with the duelists only feet away from each other. We also have made significant progress on the animations since you last swung by.” And then, he turned his attention back to the tournament.

Only one person in the tournament, a busty blonde by the name of Mai Kujaku, provided any sort of challenge. Though in the end he still won, she provided some interesting strategies. Drawing her hand, she had made a strange comment. “Aren’t you a little… young for this?”

“It’s a card game. Skill matters, not age.” She gave a laugh at the comment, and Kaiba raised an eyebrow. He drew his own hand and looked through the cards. It wasn’t the best; it didn’t have his strongest monsters or most potent spells. Still, he could make it work. “Plus, we’ve got midgets running around that look like they couldn’t be older than ten. Judging by the crowd, I’d have to ask if you are a bit old.”

Mai’s eye twitched but only for a split moment. “I meant for all of this; designing these wonders and being in charge of so much. Haga and Ryuzaki are older than they look… but you already knew that.”

Mai gave a smirk, barely looking at her hand as she drew a card. Next, she summoned a Harpy Lady in attack position and set a card in her spell/trap card zone. While the Harpy Lady would usually be no threat, he trusted Pegasus enough to not invite fools to the tournament, and she seemed to have a few brain cells in her previous duel. So, the trap probably had some bite. If he had the dragon cards Pegasus had designed after the white dragon necklaces or a decent spell, he wouldn’t bat an eye at it, but that wasn’t the hand he was dealt.

Instead, the best way to deal with this trap would be to spring it.

“By the way, your comment isn’t going to throw me off my game, but if this weren’t during a duel, that would have been very rude. Yet, all is fair in love and war. I end my turn.”

Kaiba didn’t break eye contact as he summed Powered Ryu-Kishin. “This is better than war, but you still shouldn’t expect me to hold back. I attack with my monster.”

Mai rest her hand on the trap card, signaling to the Box to start calculating the possible effects and stall the battle accordingly, before she uttered under her breath,“This is going to be a low blow,”

“If you have any respect for me, you shouldn’t hold back either.”

“Fair.” She flipped the set card to reveal Mirror Wall. “Gozaburo wouldn’t have thought this on par with war. He left his mark on you, but you aren’t him, are you? I end my turn.”

Kaiba froze, as he watched his monster’s attack points drop and then his life points. Then he let out a sneer. “He was not my father. Don’t speak as if you knew him.”

“I knew of him certainly, and he had enough of a reputation for me to know he wouldn’t have thought very highly of dueling. Harpy Lady attacks you directly” She leaned slightly forward and spoke almost in a whisper. “I also know that plenty of people here fear you simply because they think you are Gozaburo..”

Kaiba drew a card and then chose to raise his voice in response. “They will learn to fear me instead.”

While Kaiba saw luck as something to constantly fight against, the chance of a poor hand or a misstep lurking around every corner, but this was the exact card he had wanted last turn and needed now. Summoning the weaker monster from his had made for a good sacrifice, but if he didn’t deal with that continuous trap its stronger brother would be worthless. “I use Mystical Space Typhoon to send Mirror Wall to the graveyard, and summon Rude Kaiser in attack position. Now destroy that Harpy Lady.”

The rest of the game played on. Mai had a few more tricks up her sleeve, but, like with everyone else, none of the tricks were enough. He won in the end. She gathered her cards and said she would learn much from the duel.

With only four Boxes made so far, the tournament left plenty of time when an individual player would not be competing. Kaiba only hoped that the other Beta testers would be skilled enough to provide at least some entertainment. A couple of times, one would make a play that caught his attention, but then they would fall back to basic strategy and complete lack of poker face.

When Pegasus tapped his shoulder and said, “Looks like the show is about to begin,” Kaiba glanced over to find in dismay that it was just the guy with the bandanna and the one who smelled like fish. Keith Howard and Ryota Kajiki.

“Them?”

“Just watch,” Pegasus winked then pulled back to watch the Duel unfold.

Kaiba watched then as Kajiki started to declare attack only for Kieth to flip a trap card: Reinforcements. Kajiki stared at it blankly. After a couple moments, he stuttered,“That wasn’t there before. If this were a legit duel, you wouldn’t have had time to prepare and cast that. I mean, you needed to put it down during your turn.” Kajiki looked back up at Keith, and suddenly you could see Kajiki’s thoughts come together. “You did that on purpose. You cheated.”

“You can’t prove it wasn’t already there.”

“A duel isn’t binding if you don’t follow the rules.” Kajiki turned to look directly at Kaiba. “Well, you’re the host. Aren’t you going to do something?”

Kaiba walked over to the box and looked the field over. “Finish the attack.”

While a smirk plastered itself on Keith’s face, Kajiki stared at him slackjawed. He turned to Pegasus then looked back at Kajiki. Finally, he set his jaw, “I would like the money, but I am not going to disrespect my father’s spirit by participating in this sham.”

“No, look at his monster again. Finish the attack.”

Both Kajiki and Keith glanced back at the field, and their eyes rested on the attack and defense numbers hovering above the monster’s holographic form. They hadn’t changed, not from before Kieth had laid the trap card still visible on the table. Kajiki hesitantly pointed at Keith’s monster. “Kairyu Shin, attack Sword Slasher.” The sea serpent on Mako’s side of the table burst forward with several pushes of its giant tail and ripped into Keith’s machine.

“You should have noticed the moment no animation sprung up.”

Kieth visibly squirmed in his seat. “That is… that … has to be a glitch.”

“Do you think this Box is dumb? Do you think I am dumb?” Kaiba hit the plastic on Keith’s side of the Box. “Sure, it allows you to be more creative with your attacks and takes more into account when doing battle calculations than would be possible for a simple card game, but it isn’t a free for all. There are still rules, and the Box makes sure those rules are followed. And, if that doesn’t convince you, we can always check the record.”

“The record?”

“Somebody didn’t read the paperwork he signed.” Kaiba grabbed a tablet and USB from the desk on the side of the room and plugged it into a port on the box. “All the duels in the tournament have been recorded for company use, though everyone here will also have access to the files for review for strategy and apparently to find cheating.”

“It was my idea.” Pegasus chimed from the back. “To have power, a duel should have a third party witness so that everyone knows what really happened. This way the Box itself can provide witness.”

“The option can be turned off for casual events, but this is not a casual event.” Kaiba turned the tablet to face Keith. “Now, would you like everyone to see you cheat using the play-by-play or the video?” Keith didn’t respond but instead glanced back and the field, eyes darting left and right. “The camera’s on the center bar.”

“Ooh, I know,” Pegasus chimed in clapping his hands lightly before Keith could say anything. “We should do it by video. That way we can watch his greasy hands lay the thing down.”

Kaiba pressed the video option and jumped the playback to the previous turn. The video played, clearly showing the card not on the field during Kieth’s whole turn, and even as it passed to Kajiki’s turn the only evidence of the trick was- after Kajiki summoned his new monster – Keith folded his arms and laid them on the table, directly on top of his spell/trap card zone. When he removed his arms, the card was now there.

However, Keith wasn’t even watching.

Instead, Kieth just glared at Pegasus. His body didn’t move at all, and his eyes looked glassy. You could almost see steam rising from his skin. “I’m going to get you back for this on top of last time, you damn slime ball.”

“Oh, please, you wouldn’t play fair, and it still wouldn’t be fair to you. The only reason I invited you was to test that the Box’s could hold up to someone of your ilk,” Pegasus’s lips rolled in a sneer, and then his expression turned in an instant to he was beamed at Kaiba, “and they performed wonderfully. Not that I had any doubts, but it so nice to finally see it in action.”

Kaiba kept his focus on Keith. “So you have a history of this sort of thing?”

Keith haphazardly rolled his shoulders. “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

“Oh, please. No one has been able to pin anything on you, but there’s a reason people call you the Bandit.” One could practically hear Pegasus’s eyes roll into the back of his head. “Now, Kaiba, as the host, would you do the honors of removing him from the premises?”

“Gladly.” Kaiba flipped the tablet back to him and pressed a few buttons before a few members of security stepped through the main door.

Keith got up and exited the box before the security could get to him. “No need to drag me out. I know when I’m not wanted.” However, just as he got to the door, he turned around and pointed at Pegasus. “Just don’t think you’ve seen the last of me, you red bitch.”

Pegasus covered his mouth in fake shock. “Well, wasn’t that rude.”

Even after Keith left everyone stayed frozen, until Kaiba broke the silence, “Kajiki has been declared the victor, as Keith has forfeited his right to continue. Now resume your games. We need to make sure the tournament stays on schedule.”

Slowly everyone started moving again, and within several moments, everyone was focused on their own games. As the atmosphere thawed Pegasus strode over to the Box so that as Kajiki exited, the duelist suddenly found a hand on his back. “Don’t worry. This isn’t a sham. By the time the project is released, you will be able to use your full skill set, and as you see, no cheating will slip under our radar anymore. Things will be more legitimate than ever before.”

Kajiki nodded and wander over to another Box to spectate.

Later on, Kaiba wandered over to stand by Pegasus. “That was an excellent opportunity to showcase the Box’s abilities, but a more explicit warning would have been nice.”

Pegasus shrugged. “What would be the fun in that, and you handled it well enough without.”

The rest of the tournament unfolded smoothly. Kaiba won, as expected. Meanwhile, Insector Haga got second, Dinosaur Ryuzaki Third, and Ryota Kajiki fourth.

So, while the information on the DA cable was missing from the general write up, it would have had to have been included for the installation of these particular units, if just so that the company could perform regularly scheduled maintenance.

After several minutes of digging, Kaiba managed to pull up a file with the relevant information. He blinked.

The Duel Boxes were installed on the fifth floor of Kaiba Corp Tower. The cables ran down six floors into the tower’s basement each to a separate room labeled with the boxes’ serial numbers. That was the sort of space that Kaiba would expect to find a couple terahertz worth of processing.

Unfortunately, whoever had hidden the files (and Kaiba had to guess it was Ota or one of his subordinates) had the upper hand at least for the moment, since the installation record didn’t contain any information on those rooms. Searching for the serial numbers revealed nothing useful, except for a few more diagnostics from the tournament. The processing and power were further subdivided there into the same subdivisions as with the Box data, but with everything on a different scale. Comparing with the diagnostic runs for the box, each process was indeed running in tandem with its smaller counterpart. 

Continuing to look for answers, Kaiba found that the rooms had not appeared on previous searches for ‘DA’ anything. Kaiba tried a few more searches with ‘DA rooms’ and ‘DA basement’. Nothing popped up, or at least nothing relevant. Kaiba then hesitantly entered ‘DB,’ moving onto the next letter of the Roman alphabet. Absolutely nothing.

The rooms were a backwash for the computing power that the project team couldn't admit they needed.

Kaiba rolled his eyes in frustrations. But, Ota’s success at hiding the files would only help him for so long. At some point over the weekend or on Monday after school, if need be, he could head down to the basement himself and see for himself what was there.

Kaiba then turned back to the email.

He had originally been planning to attack Kuwabara for allowing the situation to get this far, but looking into the power and processing issues had given him a sliver more perspective. Kuwabara and the rest of the engineering department still needed to be reprimanded for hiding- or at least withholding- the existence of whole rooms of the Duel Box project. Kaiba’s lip curled back in disgust. Maybe withholding the information wasn’t their idea, but they didn’t have the spine to do what they had to do.

Kaiba didn’t need employees with no bite; he needed strong employees that knew he could bite back harder. The R&D department needed reminding of this distinction. His reply to the email would not be pretty.

But, Kaiba’s real enemy here was Ota, and so long as Ota had a hold of the R&D department, he would turn any attempt to remedy this situation into a whipping contest with the Duel Monster’s project as happy collateral. That wasn’t an option. It was too inefficient, too counterproductive, too much at risk. Not with the Duel Monster’s project on the line. He’d have to first curtail Ota at the board meeting, and he would find some way to make Ota pay.

The Duel Monster’s project may technically be complete, but he couldn’t afford to scrap the human resources attached to it. Even though the original Duel Monster’s project was complete, the company would need to keep the resources on hand even just to provide maintenance on the existing units that Industrial Illusions had ordered, and any gaming company worth its name would at least provide marginal upgrades and patches for the equipment and software.

Moreover, Industrial Illusions had ordered several more units, so they were likely planning to launch the game soon. Wasting project resources now would likely bite him in the ass.

Most generally, these were the people who understood how the holograms worked, and even within the department, a number of engineers couldn’t wrap their mind around it and have to work on other aspects of the projects. If an engineer couldn't hold their weight or was more loyal to Ota than him, then Kaiba wouldn’t hesitate to let them go, but replenishing the human capital would be expensive. Best to cut people strategically.

But, more than just business calculations, the Duel Monster’s project had been a lifeline. He had bet his company’s future on it, and even before Kaiba Corp had become his, the tinkering he had done was proof of what the company could become.

He wouldn’t waste his anger here, not when Ota was an appropriate target.

Still, he needed to take his anger out on something.

After everything that happened today, from waking up in a dumpster to the Big Five angling to return Kaiba Corp to its former self, finding out key information about the Duel Monster’s project had been hidden from him was too much. His muscles and jaw almost ached in tension, wanting to lash out at something. He pounded against the desk, sending everything jumping again. It wasn’t enough. His teeth clacked together.

Kaiba glanced around for something to destroy. The pen from earlier was already falling apart and wouldn’t be satisfying at all, but it did give him an idea. He opened one of the desk’s drawers and pulled out several pencils. He snapped them first in halves and then fourths. They barely offered any resistance, bending and breaking at the slightest of pressure. Kaiba didn’t even need to use a whole hand to break them apart. He grabbed another pencil from the drawer and then stopped.

Kaiba scowled. That wasn’t any fun.

He absentmindedly started chewing on the wooden end of the new pencil, while he chucked the pieces out the open window using so much force that he couldn’t see where they landed. Then deciding that wasn’t good enough, he started aiming at the door to the office. It wasn’t much better, but the sound of wood bouncing off wood provided at least some small sliver of gratification. The pieces scattered around the room, flying then rolling back to the desk.

When Kaiba finally ran out of pencil pieces, he sneered. He glared at the door and rolled the pencil in his mouth with his tongue before pressing it against his teeth. The pressure was surprisingly nice. But, he was still pissed, ready to kick holes in the wall and crush someone’s windpipe, if only someone were available. He was just about ready to get up and act on the first option when a sudden whiff of something sour hit his nose, jerking him out of his thoughts.

Kaiba’s jaw clenched around the pencil, and it snapped in his mouth. The ends fell into his lap, and he had to spit both the middle piece and splinters out of his mouth. Kaiba stared down at the broken pencil pieces, before finally tossing them in the trash.

What the fuck? Why had he even put that in his mouth?

A sour taste sat on his tongue and hovered in the air along with a few more splinters caught between his teeth, so Kaiba got up to spit in the trash can. He glared at the broken pieces of wood sitting at the bottom of the bag. He didn’t put things in his mouth. That wasn’t something he did. The pieces of wood seemed to glare back at him. But, you did it. He rolled his eyes. A temporary lapse in judgment.

Kaiba returned to his desk and stared at the email again. While his blood was still thick with rage, some of the tension was gone, replaced with confusion.

How could things have gotten this far? Ota was definitely to blame for hiding things from him, but how had he not noticed earlier? He could walk circles around the Big Five and unravel their plans before they could implement them. How could this have slipped him by?

On what standard could he have seen it?

The whole Duel Monster’s project had been unique from the start. No other company had committed to a gaming project with holograms at the center. No other company had the knowledge or the right. He didn’t have other projects to compare it to, other projects where things went right to see this one spiraling off of the rails. There was nothing to base expectations off of except what he personally thought they could accomplish, or rather what he thought he would be able to accomplish in the team’s place, while he managed the company.

But, the team wasn’t composed of people like him. The R&D teams were composed of fucking buffoons. Buffoons who could do well enough in their fields, and the buffoons who were the best available to work with the company tech. But still, buffoons.

Kaiba still hadn’t remembered seeing the DA specs on his previous passes through the data. Had he simply overlooked it, not noticing the units on the meters before, because he hadn’t known to keep an eye out for that? Kaiba would think he would notice a detail like that. Or had the information not been there before? If they had been previously trying to hide it from him, it would make sense that they only uncovered it for their own convenience once they thought he was gone. There was no way to know for certain, but the situation certainly reeked.

From the other angle, the only thing Ota stood to gain from this was not to have his own ass chewed out for incompetence, but that wouldn’t explain why things had gotten as bad as they had unless Ota was trying to sabotage things.

Kaiba let out a hollow laugh.

Ota didn’t have the technical knowledge to even know how to lead the research team astray with his advice, and the most Ota had achieved through brute force was to prevent the project team from bringing the problems to Kaiba’s attention. Plus, even if Kaiba was convinced they could do far better, Pegasus had looked pleased with the results, ecstatic even.

Oh, fuck. Did Pegasus know about this?

Of course, he did; he had units installed in his facilities.

But, with a couple of moments more thought Kaiba realized that Pegasus had known all along. He hadn’t been confused at all upon the installation, and in fact, had called Kaiba up to congratulate him, and Kaiba couldn’t recall an iota of surprise beyond remarks that everything was even better than Pegasus had remembered. Not what one would expect from someone who had had several extra rooms added to their facilities without prior information.

  
Moreover, even some of the comments from the tournament made more sense now. No wonder he’d expected it to be bigger. If the reports he’d been receiving had mentioned whole rooms dedicated to each device, then the Boxes Kaiba had been dealing with would seem pathetically small.

Kaiba then remembered another interaction that now made sense.

Not too long after the tournament had ended, Kaiba had been reviewing the Box data with Pegasus, noting which cards and animations had drained the most energy and discussing whether having more visual cues to indicate the detection of cheating. Kaiba had originally thought that having the replayable tapes would be enough, and for some forms of cheating, it would be necessary since there would likely be ways for people to slip by the immediate fail-safes. But, Pegasus had suggested adding a red light so that the players would know something was up.

Suddenly a senior engineer had stopped by, hesitant and shakey as always. “If Pegasus isn’t too busy, I have the files he requested, and I would be willing to take him on a guided tour of the facilities.”

Kaiba had squinted at the engineer and shook his head. “Didn’t you look at the agenda? I took him on a private tour yesterday.”

However, when Kaiba glanced at Pegasus, he had his mouth slightly ajar and was pointing at the door. “Another tour would probably do me good. You’re going through the data here far too quickly for me anyways, and I already told you the one thing I thought of during the tournament. I’ll leave you here then.”

“If you are so inclined, I can take you again myself.” It would be rude to send a business guest off without offering yourself, and Pegasus was one of the few people whose business he actually valued. He would have to move some of his schedule around, but he could do it. Reviewing the data would be pushed back an hour or two, and part way through he would be interrupted again to see Pegasus to his plane. By the time he was finished, it would cut an hour into sleep before he woke up tomorrow morning to finish his school work and prepare for the Sunday board meeting A reasonable sacrifice.

“Oh no, I don’t want to impose. You’re busy enough already. School and a company? I can only handle one of those myself.”

“I could make the time.”

Pegasus shook his head. “You’ve known me for a little over two years now, and we’ve met how many times to discuss this? You don’t have to. Your work on the Duel Monsters project is a gift enough.”

Kaiba thought it over. Pegasus was giving him an out, and while Kaiba wasn’t particularly keen on simply rehashing the same information from the previous tour, the data in front of him was new and included a treasure trove of opportunities for improvement. Kaiba decided to take Pegasus’s offer and simply nodded. “I’ll be here.”

Looking back, perhaps he should have looked the gift horse in the mouth; Pegasus had been awfully keen to shake Kaiba’s presence to see something. Perhaps it had been those rooms in the basement. The files could have easily pertained to the DA portion of the project as well.

Kaiba’s face creased into a frown.

But, why? Why the secrecy? Why didn’t Pegasus just tell him what was going on? Why dance around it and leave him in the dark? Pegasus had, after all, approached him about the project in the first place. He hadn’t turned to the Gozaburo or the Big Five. He hadn’t gone directly to the R&D department. He had brought to Kaiba. In fact, he brought to the project to Kaiba before Kaiba had any of those other things.

None of this made any sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Make tech a plot point of my fic? Raise your hand if you are surprised. *crickets*
> 
> I hope you all did not get bored of Kaiba doing computer research. We have had a lot to cover, but I do try to make sure that the process of getting the information as well as Kaiba's reactions to it to make it more digestible (as well as the flow of information and how Kaiba processing it being a crucial part of the story itself. You can't write a story focusing on a character being in denial, and not have these aspects be central to the story). I also make sure to include flashbacks and interludes focusing on meatspace rather than computer research to keep some variety.
> 
> Fortunately, the next chapter will be more flashback as we explore the early days of the Duel Monsters project :)
> 
> Finally, I hope you enjoyed Pegasus's appearance! I have been alluding to Duel Monsters a bit, and it was great to finally have him make an appearance!


	11. Box of Light Part 2: Sparks of Inspiration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still shaken from realizing that Pegasus would have likely known about the faults in the duel box system, Kaiba thinks back to when he first met Pegasus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might start being more sparse with the chapter content warnings since a lot of it is 'in line with previous chapters' at this point, and because I am no longer posting the full chapters to tumblr, where people could easily stumble upon an isolated chapter. Therefore, I will be focusing more on maintaining the overall story tags, which will remain accurate.

Seto Kaiba stared at his laptop for a few moments, continuing to wonder how this could have happened. How could Pegasus have kept the obvious flaws in his product a secret from him? Why would he keep it a secret? Why keep it a secret at all? What could Pegasus possibly benefit from this? Kaiba couldn’t think of a benefit since Pegasus had bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of buggy product, and while Pegasus’s wallet would recover quickly enough, it wasn’t a casual investment. Had Pegasus foolishly thought to shield Kaiba’s feelings on the matter? The thought made Kaiba’s stomach turn. Pegasus hadn’t been that stupid before.

There were no answers. Nothing made sense.

Kaiba tried to focus instead on moving forward. This was a sour note in what he had thought to be a mutually beneficial business relationship. A sour note as all such relationships had. He might as well focus on fixing all of his engineers' god damn mistakes. He had put together the original systems. He could certainly figure out how to improve them.

However, as Kaiba collected the materials for DM::DA2.01 and DM::DA1.85, his movements were jerky and awkward. He had to pause and remind himself what he was doing several times. As much as he tried, his mind wasn’t with the task at hand.

Instead, it was interrogating every moment he’d spent with Pegasus, trying to see if there was something he’d missed.

 

* * *

 

 

Seto had met Pegasus J. Crawford originally at one of the business conferences that Gozaburo had dragged him to as a part of his schooling. Most of these conferences were based on military technology and production, but some focused on business management or were a flimsy excuse for the moneyed elites to rub noses. This was, unfortunately, the later type, somehow made worse by Gozaburo running the event himself over the course of several days. That did not get Seto out of attending.

Though Seto would look back and realize how eventful those few days were, he originally had suspected they would be boring. A razor-thin tightrope walk like everything else in his life made worse by having to deal with so many people, but certainly not something Seto would have thought memorable.

Oh, the pretense towards Seto’s education wasn’t subtle either. There had been a few talks from experts on cybersecurity, big data management, and digital media, which Seto had no doubt he would be quizzed on later. Gozaburo didn’t factor in whether Seto cared about the material when he scheduled these things, so Seto was simply grateful that he wouldn’t have to force himself to pay attention for half of these. Unfortunately, sometimes actually caring about the material also meant letting one’s mind run with an idea and miss whatever insignificant detail or phrasing or gesture Gozaburo decided to play gotcha with.

But, if the meeting was only about Seto picking up new information, Gozaburo wouldn’t have fussed over it and wouldn't have invited so many people. And, there certainly wouldn't be so many social times. Gozaburo wasn’t a sociable person and wasn’t particularly keen on making nice with potential competitors. Hell, even if there was absolutely no overlap in market prospects, if you had too much wealth and connections, you were then competing in the field of pure power. And, for how little time Gozaburo spent relaxing with company, he gave Seto even less free time. Seto didn’t need those distractions.

No. While Gozaburo wasn’t keen on niceties, that didn’t make these formalities meaningless. They were merely a different battleground on which to wage his wars.

And, this battleground had its own rules of engagement.

Seto, you aren’t to talk about your silly games. In fact, you will mostly stay by my side and you will stay quiet. However, I don’t want people thinking you are mute. You will respond when people talk to you, and you will be able to hold a conversation. When you do talk with someone, keep the conversation focused on them. Keep an eye out for what they have planned, and what their pressure points are, but don’t be obvious about it. Don’t reveal anything about yourself, and if I find out one thing about myself or the company leaked through you, there will be hell to pay. Dinner will be cut for the next two weeks, and I will personally supervise your tutoring to exact punishment. So, remember no matter how attached or excited you are about any of your projects, your research belongs to the company.

At this point, nothing belonged to Seto except the corners of his mind. His adopted father owned the clothes on Seto’s back and the right to choose Seto’s outfit every morning, barely wavering from the pale gakuren with gold embroidery. He owned Seto’s room and retained the right to search it at any time. He owned Seto’s time, wringing every last minute out of Seto’s day. Anything Seto said or did in public reflected back to Gozaburo and thus was Gozaburo’s to pick apart.

So, Seto didn’t realize how literal the final comment was until Gozaburo interrupted the opening banquet to announce that Kaiba Corp was hosting this event to celebrate the finishing of a new project: a military training simulator using holographic projection. “Not holographic as in images on glass. That would be old news and hardly suitable for target practice, but actual 3-D imaging onto air.”

The atmosphere in the room seemed to crack.

Seto felt like the seat had fallen out from under him and could only stare at directly ahead as the KC logo appeared all over the room, projected through the circular glass at the center of each table. The guests went completely silent. Someone tumbled backwards out of their chair. A heavy hand fell onto Seto’s right shoulder, pinning him in place.

“Guided by advanced computer software, we can produce practice environments that simulate not only the technical skills of warfare but also the psychological and mental skills. No more having a soldier perform perfectly on the range and then freeze up when confronted with an actual enemy; they will have seen and fired on lifelike simulations of enemy combatants during training. But, the real benefit is how flexible a single installation can be. Concoct numerous scenarios to test your soldiers' ability to think under pressure. Have intel on what the enemy base looks like? Before going into the field, have your soldiers already experience fighting in those walls.”

As Gozaburo talked the logo shifted to a soldier firing on a vague humanoid target to the schematics for presumably a military compound before finally settling back into the KC logo. Meanwhile, Seto saw black smoke start to hiss out of his table. The room seemed to wobble.

His heart started pounding against his rib cage and his mind raced. No. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen.

He had been planning to put the technology together into a game for him and Mokuba and hopefully, eventually, if that didn’t get confiscated, for others kids too. But, his worst-case scenario had been Gozaburo breaking his tech, deleting the schematics, and derailing his electrical engineering and software design classes. He’d thought he’d been spared when Gozaburo had actually given him more time to work on it, declaring that his investment into Seto might finally be paying off.

Seto hadn’t even stopped to consider this possibility.

Now, a machine based on Seto’s work was overheating in front of a room of guests, with Gozaburo describing how it was already being sold to the military to train soldiers into better killers. The worst piece of it was that no matter what happened this would come back to haunt him. Gozaburo would be absolutely furious at any sign of things going wrong – and in public no less. No dinner for a week and lashing out during his lessons started looking more and more like a good deal compared to whatever would wait for him at home tonight. And, if it scared off any potential investors or consumers… Seto couldn’t even begin to imagine what would happen then.

At this point, Seto was shaking in his seat. Why didn’t the machine just burst into flames already and burn the whole building down, save himself the trouble?

Seto nervously glanced up at Gozaburo only to find him continuing to give the product speech, acknowledging the applications of the technology to other industries. Had he just not noticed yet? Seto glanced back at the table’s center. The machine wasn’t exactly billowing, but Gozaburo should have noticed by now.

Seto considered for a moment saying nothing and letting Gozaburo dig his own grave. Gozaburo had turned his invention into that monstrosity, let him reap the rewards of a faulty installation

But, there weren’t just military crones here to judge the dinner. Leaders from all sorts of industries were here. In preparation for any major event, Gozaburo made sure that Seto knew the names and prospects of the major players in attendance. Gozaburo had excluded anyone from gaming to the point of spite, but Seto at least remembered several big names in entertainment on the guest list. Even if they didn’t know the invention had been his, the guests would judge his creation all the same. And that would ruin everything.

Oh, they might still be impressed, but they wouldn’t invest in the project. They wouldn’t approach Gozaburo asking for some units to work with, since the product was clearly flawed in its current form.

Even though he already knew the entertainment executives were watching, Seto couldn’t help but scan the room to find them. Hisashi Hieda of Fuji Media Holdings Inc and Junichi Sakomoto of Sochiku were sitting closest to Kaiba’s central table, but it didn’t take long to spot Bob Iger farther back.  
Fuck. Judgment was here.

Would there be a worse punishment if he interrupted Gozaburo’s announcement or if he didn’t say anything? He glanced back up at Gozaburo who didn’t pause his speech as he moved behind Seto so both of his hands now pressed down on Seto’s shoulders with a tough squeeze. The message was immediate: stop your wiggling and put on a good face for the audience. But, Seto couldn’t just let his invention fall apart in front of everyone like that. He shook his head trying do discretely gesture at the malfunctioning device before he finally tried to whisper just loud enough that only Gozaburo could hear, “Smoke.”

The squeeze on Seto’s shoulder intensified to the point of pain, and Gozaburo added for good measure, “And, none of this wouldn’t be possible without my son, who designed the hardware and perfected the software needed for it to run.”

That wasn’t praise. Gozaburo was dragging Seto into hell with him.

Everyone’s eyes were now focused on Seto. All those eyes staring directly at him, as more smoke started to billow out of the table. Little flames like candles started to flicker around the circular glass panel at the table’s center.

Seto tried to stay still and force his lips into a smile for the crowd despite his natural instinct to press them together into a grimace, and for the first time, he noticed that no one else was panicking. No one else around the table batted an eye at what was happening. Some seemed appreciative or thoughtful while other seemed shocked or wide-eyed, but nearly everyone’s attention was on Gozaburo and himself. The few people who were looking at the center of the table had their eyes upwards, fixated on the holograms before glancing back at Seto.

None of this made any sense, and it felt like a bad dream. Was everyone taunting him?

Seto couldn’t tell whether he was shaking or paralyzed. His heart didn’t even feel like it was in his body anymore, and only just now did he realize how quickly his shallow breaths were pulsing in and out of his lungs. Except it didn’t feel like his breaths were even reaching his lungs at all.

Everyone was looking at him. Seto had to keep it together. Looking like a fool wasn’t an option. Except he already looked the fool, as the smoke in front of him stared him down. Except he couldn’t be the one to flinch, and more so he couldn’t act as a fool to Gozaburo. He had to play along. It didn’t matter if Seto thought Gozaburo was being completely nuts not reacting to something right in front of him; there would be a punishment for acting out regardless.

Gozaburo continued his speech, but Seto couldn’t pay attention. He stared blankly at the projector, hoping beyond reason that it would stop smoking. After a moment, however, Seto realized that there was no place for the smoke to slide through. The projector was working through a solid piece of glass set into the table, and the smoke was floating through the glass as if it were nothing. And, a fire started from overheating wouldn’t look like a bunch of candles. At least he didn’t think so.

Seto felt his stomach drop. The room wobbled again.

He’d been seeing strange shapes out of the corner of his eye for past few months, wisps and silhouettes he couldn’t quite pin down. Several times he’d thought Gozaburo was about to come into the room and had nearly jumped out of his chair, only to find Gozaburo not there and the tutor hitting his wrist with a ruler. The strange occurrences even helped inspire his development of the holographic technology. It was only when he was walking down the mansion's halls to turn in an assignment and his arms started turning to dust, with the paper still in his fingertips, did he realize how bad the situation had gotten. He’d only just barely managed to compose himself to hand it over to the tutor.

But... everyone else was seeing this… right? Or it was a dream, and the conference was going to start tomorrow. He wasn’t sitting here in front of everybody watching fake smoke come out of the table while Gozaburo sold his technology to the military industrial complex. He was anywhere but here. He had to be.

The pressure of Gozaburo’s hand on shoulder reminded him that it wasn’t a dream, and whether or not this was real, he couldn’t react. The whole table could explode and the flames lick at Seto’s skin, and he’d have to sit there still as stone until Gozaburo was finished speaking.

However, though Gozaburo held the room rapt for a while, he then decided to wrap up his speech. “While we are certainly giving the military priority access to this technology as to not have the tactical advantage swiped away, we are also eager to harvest its potential across all industries. Kaiba Corp has always been on the cutting edge of technology, and it’s high time that Kaiba Crop started competing in the digital world. I am sure you will find as the conference progresses that our technology can hold it’s own. But, for now, simply ponder our demonstration over dinner.” All of the holographic projectors in the room turned off. Gozaburo leaned down as he moved to sit down and whispered so only Seto could hear, “We will talk about this later.”

Seto nodded.

The room stayed still for a couple moments before conversation erupted once again. Seto stared straight ahead and vaguely poked at his food, feeling no appetite whatsoever. He was still processing what just happened, and if given half the chance he would have just continued going through the motions enough to deflect attention but not actually do anything. Life, unfortunately, did not afford him that opportunity, and within a few moments, people at the table were asking him questions. “How did you come up with this? It’s absolutely amazing” “This is genius! Gozaburo must be so proud!” “How did you even learn how do all of this? You’re only, what, twelve?” (Thirteen actually, not that any of them gave a shit.)

Seto glanced at Gozaburo who was staring at him intensely. He almost flinched but fortunately was able to stop himself. This was a test. He looked back at the guests eagerly staring him down through the haze of smoke. “I turned thirteen four months ago, so not twelve, but still a bit younger than most engineers. Gozaburo has poured so much into my education since taking me in. I only hope he’s as proud of my invention as I am.” His voice was high pitched or rather higher pitched than usual. He hated it.

Gozaburo nodded. “It will certainly be a boon to the company.” Seto let out a sigh of relief. That seemed to indicate a pass.

For the rest of the banquet, Gozaburo guided the conversation, not giving Seto much chance to speak except to answer a few direct questions. Though the conference kept Gozaburo busy until almost midnight, as soon as they got to the mansion, Seto braced himself for the inevitable. “What the ever loving fuck did you think you were doing at the banquet. I knew you would throw a fit if you knew ahead of time about the contract and that you would get damn well squeakier than any son of mine has the right to be. But, care to explain what you meant by ‘smoke’ cause I still can’t figure that one out.”

There wasn’t any good answer to that. Seto wasn’t even sure what had seen himself, so instead, he started to move towards his room. “Nothing.”

Suddenly a hand grabbed Seto’s arm and pulled him back to face Gozaburo. “It didn’t seem like nothing.”

“Fine, I thought I saw smoke. Is that good enough for you?” earliest event tomorrow started at seven, which meant they were going to leave the mansion at six, or even earlier since Gozaburo was the one running it. He only had so much time until the next thing. Seto tried yanking his hand arm away to no avail. “I’m going to go prepare for the presentations tomorrow.”

“You thought you saw smoke?”

“Like the projector was overheating or something. Must have been something in my eye. It won’t happen again.” Seto at least hoped that it wouldn’t happen again. It better not happen again.

Gozaburo stared Seto down clearly trying to decide whether the answer was satisfactory. Finally, he hailed over the butler. He looked tired, most of the other staff had gone home after cleaning with the Kaibas away at the conference, but somebody needed to stay in case Gozaburo Kaiba found something wrong. “Make sure he spends the next hour studying and preparing for tomorrow as he said he would. Moreover, make a note for the staff not to prepare breakfast for him tomorrow. I am going to sleep.” And with that Gozaburo let go of Seto’s arm and stormed off towards his bedroom.

If only he’d asked Kisara instead of the butler. Kisara would actually let him go to sleep after getting ready for the next day, making sure he was prepared but not holding him longer than necessary. However, she was probably still at the conference.

That and Gozaburo and her appeared to have started some form of pissing contest back in November, not too long after his own birthday. Seto wasn’t sure what exactly had set it off. They never had really gotten along before, but Seto had also never had seen Gozaburo wearing a cast nor Kisara looking so haunted. Gozaburo pulled out the necklace more during his interactions with her, his hands seeming to roll over the pearls almost in a taunt. Seto was almost surprised that Gozaburo didn’t outright fire her, but apparently, Gozaburo still thought her a valuable asset to the company, just a valuable asset that needed to learn her place. While it had been several months since then, Gozaburo held grudges for millennia.

Seto scowled at the butler for not being Kisara. Still, he wasn’t going to take this lying down, and he yelled after Gozaburo, “Why ask me about smoke when you shouldn’t have sold the holograms to the military to begin with.”

Gozaburo let out a laugh, “Even balls-less you have guts,” Gozaburo continued laughing for a solid moment, and then suddenly stopped. “You’re going to tell me what do do with my company? You’re going to tell a weapons manufacturer not to sell weapons. After the stunt today, I don’t think you have that right.” Gozaburo’s silhouette seemed to waver for a moment, but Seto managed this time to blink it away.

Seto doubted he would have had that right anyway. But, it was late, he was tired, and he was willing to take a risk, especially if he would be punished anyway. He shouted back, “The holograms were supposed to make people happy. Not to help kill anyone.”

“What you want and would do never mattered. I saw the potential to raise them above such frivolous pursuits and I took it. Plus, keeping the technology exclusive makes it more desirable to military types, allowing us to jack up the price and use them as test monkeys to iron out the kinks.” Gozaburo had already said it before: people at war are willing to throw money at anything that might give them an advantage. More than death it was desperation that made war so profitable. But, Gozaburo wasn’t done and he turned to the butler, “Make that four hours, and if he ever dozes off, use this. No cheating with coffee, tea, or soft drinks allowed.” Gozaburo reached down and undid his belt before handing it to the butler.

Seto knew what that would feel like on his back.

Gozaburo didn’t use the belt often; he didn’t have to with so many other creative ways to tighten the noose around Seto’s neck with only the threat of violence hanging in the background. But, Gozaburo also knew that sometimes the threat had to be immediate. That a child should be able to learn on their own, but if a child needed help beating a lesson through their thick skull… well, a little physical motivation wasn’t below him by any means.

Fortunately, as much as Seto wanted to go to sleep, he could stay up another ten hours if he had to. And, if he couldn’t, he’d dealt with that before. The shouting was worth it. Letting Gozaburo know what he thought of this mess was worth it. Maybe his morning self would regret this, having dealt with the consequence of his actions, but while he could take the hits himself, to watch his invention get raked through the mud was too much.

Seto turned on heel and stomped up to his room. Before getting to the top of the stairs he turned around. “And, fuck you!”

Gozaburo looked up at Seto silently then turned his gaze to the butler. Seto stared at the butler, who was staring back at him in shock. The butler fumbled with the belt before looking down at Gozaburo’s gaze.

The butler finally let it crack against Seto’s shoulder.

 

* * *

 

 

The next day Gozaburo kept him on a tight leash with barely enough time to use the bathroom let alone rest. Any moment not in a presentation or lecture was spent at Gozaburo’s side while Gozaburo chatted up some business executive or investor, with Seto responding as needed but otherwise as silent as a shadow. If by any chance, the Kaibas got a second alone, Seto found himself berated on even the smallest missteps and quizzed on every innocuous detail. By the end of the day, the process repeated itself: Seto and Gozaburo arrived at the mansion around midnight, Seto was sent to his room to spend a couple more hours studying in preparation for the next day, and the butler hovered behind his shoulder. It was the usual taken to an extreme, and Seto knew the goal was to wear him down.

Only on mid-afternoon of the third day of the conference part way through a talk on Cybersecurity did Seto get a moment as Gozaburo received a call about a company emergency. As Gozaburo got up to leave, he grabbed onto Seto’s sleeve, “Do not make a fool of me, while I’m gone.”

Seto nervously nodded.

He wasn’t sure if he was relieved when Gozaburo finally left. He relaxed his muscles a little but then had to wonder if he was really off the hook. Was there someone watching who would report back? And, he didn’t know how long Gozaburo would be gone, so he could hypothetically come back at any moment. He had to keep en gaurde. And, when Gozaburo still wasn’t back at the end of the presentation, Seto started shifting in his seat, glancing at the door. Seto remembered they were going to stay in this room for the next talk, but Seto wasn’t sure whether Gozaburo’s whims had switched in the meantime. If Gozaburo was in the middle of dealing with an emergency, he wouldn’t want any phone call interrupting him, let alone a call from Seto.

Seto glanced around the room and shifted in his seat, even as most people had gotten up to walk around and chatter with each other.

However, Seto was going to make the most of this time without Gozaburo as he could get. Sure, he couldn’t do anything too noticeable, but he was used to being subtle. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started shifting through the latest gaming news, wondering how the various updates would affect the strategies involved and trying to judge whether the upcoming games would be worth sneaking into the house. Or at least that had been the plan. He’d only gotten part way through the first article when he saw a red shape approaching from behind him. Seto didn’t even stop to close the screen and just jammed the phone back into his pocket as fast as he could.

“Oh, please, don’t let me interrupt you. I was just stopping by to say hello.”

At that point, Seto realized that the suit was a brighter shade that Gozaburo’s usual red and quite a bit slimmer as well. Moreover, instead of Gozaburo’s short steel cut sitting atop an intense broad stare, cascading silver locks framed a smile and hid one eye from view. Pegasus J. Crawford if he remembered correctly.

Seto paused. “Well, you’ve said it. Hello.” He kept his hand over his pocket with his phone. He knew he was being rude, but Gozaburo could be back any moment. He didn’t want to waste what little time he had making small chat.

“Well, perhaps I have a bit more to say than that.” Crawford let out a chuckle, “I find the holograms you made absolutely magical, and I must say I’m intrigued. I just need to know more.” He paused and gestured at the seat next to Seto. “Do you mind if I sit here? From what I hear Gozaburo’s not going to be back anytime soon, so I don’t think he’ll be missing it.” Despite all of the open chairs around Seto, Crawford was pointing directly at the one Gozaburo had been sitting in.

Seto looked Crawford over then shrugged. “I don’t have any attachment to it. Do what you want.”  
Crawford didn’t waste a moment sliding into the chair, propping his elbow against the back to angle himself towards Seto.

Gozaburo might be a little ticked at having his place taken, but so long as Seto had the excuse of courting a potential client for Kaiba Corp, he might have an out. Either that or he’d beat down even harder, but if Crawford had any wits about him, perhaps it would be worthwhile to talk about his tech without Gozaburo hovering over his shoulder. And without Gozaburo breathing down his neck and the sting of the banquet still fresh on Seto’s skin, the thought of Gozaburo busting a vein was actually pleasant.

“I suppose I should introduce myself-,” Crawford extended a hand.

“No need.” Seto interrupted. “You’re Mr. Crawford of Industrial Illusions, and you run FunBook one of largest social media sites in the world. In addition to the digital focus of your company also has a subsidiary that focuses on graphic design, stemming from your own interest in the arts. I assume that’s why you were invited to attend the release and are interested in holographic technology. But, if you are interested in purchasing or renting the tech, Gozaburo’s the one to talk to. He’s in charge of the business deals”

Crawford gave a chuckle. “Well, you certainly are on top of things, but let me give a young boy like you a hint: even if you already know something, let the other person explain it anyways. It’s polite. It builds camaraderie, and you might still learn something new.” Seto rose an eyebrow in both disbelief and interest. Something new? “For one, I don’t go by Mr. Crawford. It makes me feel so old. Pegasus is fine.” Seto started to roll his eyes and look away. “And, Gozaburo Kaiba wouldn’t be the one to talk to about what I want. That brute tends to think my silly games aren’t worth the time of day.”

Seto paused. He pressed his lips together then knit his eyebrows in confusion. “You don’t specialize in games, so what sort of metaphor are you playing here.”

“It’s politics, so a bit of a metaphor, but not as much as you think,” Crawford- no, Pegasus- said with an ear-splitting grin. “Still, you surely know that I do host some games. Casual affairs and time killers that don’t necessarily scratch your itch but games that require a certain degree of engineering to do their job of bringing people in and generate revenue. Not what I’m interested in using your tech for, but something you should keep in mind, considering you do have a FunBook account yourself.”

Seto’s head snapped to face Pegasus. He did technically have an account. But, it was under a pseudonym, since he technically wasn’t allowed to have any social media presence, and it wasn’t like he had the time to check it regularly anyways. There’s no way Pegasus would know about that.

Oh, dear god, what if Gozaburo found out about this?

“Or, I might be thinking of someone else. That comment certainly doesn’t mean anything.” Pegasus shook his head, and his long locks drifted in front of his face. “But, you should know that nothing you ever post online is truly anonymous. There’s, of course, the tracking and stats companies like mine have to do to make money, but it is also the case that people always put a piece of their soul into whatever they put into the world. That is, in fact, a part of the reason I wanted to talk to you.”

“About people putting their souls in things?” Seto was still reeling from the FunBook comment, but it also made him realize that Pegasus was dancing around him. Another adult who thought he was a toy to play with. “If you are going to be spouting nonsense, I have better things to do with my time.” To drive his point home, Seto pulled out his phone. Unfortunately, since he still had no idea what he was going to do other than ignore the crackpot beside him, the movements were less than fluid, and he ended up scrolling through the article he’d had up without actually reading any of it.

Pegasus didn’t say anything. But, he didn’t leave either. He just… hovered.

After getting to the bottom of the article, Seto glanced over to find Pegasus staring at him, mouth agape. Seto made a face. “What?”

Pegasus’s hands spun in front of his face and brushed through his hair several times before he was able to utter a word. “Well, surely, you would have some idea. I just had the most distinct feeling that you would know about that… I mean in order to make the holograms I thought he would have thought you something...”

“Yeah, electrical engineering.”

“Well, yes, your devices are powered by electricity. I had no doubt about that. Gives them a good deal of versatility, allowing them to be programmed for so many different forms, and they wouldn’t be showcased here otherwise. But, I head Industrial Illusions. I know special graphics and digital tech when I see it. your beauties are also a thousand years ahead of anything on the open market, and the closest off-market I can think of lags a bit and is based completely around...”

Just as Pegasus was starting to make sense a headache started building, starting around his temples and quickly spread to the base of his head and behind his eyes. He stared at Pegasus, tried to listen to him, push through the noise building in his mind. Still, couldn’t focus on what Pegasus was saying as if the words would enter his ears but couldn’t stick to his brain, as if they were water pouring through his fingertips that he couldn't hold onto. As he panicked and tried harder to listen, the headache only got stronger. Words turned to a jumble of sounds.

This shouldn’t be that hard. It usually wasn’t this hard. What was wrong with him?

Suddenly, Seto involuntarily flinched.

Pegasus stopped talking, and concern filled his eyes. “Oh, dear. What has he done to you?”

Pegasus then reached a hand out to touch Seto’s face, and Seto pulled away, this time deliberately and with disgust. “Nothing,” he spat out with a sneer. “Nothing I didn’t sign up for.”

“I’ve signed up for some less than savory things in my time. Some I regret, some I don't. But something tells me that he didn’t give you a choice. Maybe in some things but not in this.” He let out an almost wistful sigh and ran his hand through his hair, almost revealing the eye hiding behind his bangs. “Fortunately, Gozaburo’s not close enough to hear, and I doubt he’s noticed. But, even if he has, he’s a bit tied up at the moment, and if I stick around, I’ll give him someone else to lash out at. He hates me a bit more than you.”

Seto highly doubted that and almost rolled his eyes, but he was also confused and a little glad that this hadn’t turned into a pity party. Pegasus was for the first time it seemed being practical.

“Oh, well, maybe not more, but his hatred is certainly different. You’re a treasure he can’t quite keep his hands on, and he’s mad you keep slipping away. He can’t stand that you’re not a thing he can own and control. Meanwhile, I am indirectly undermining his business, his legacy, his whole way of life.”

Seto pursed his mouth. “I don’t see how you’d be in a position to do that.”

His words were still rude, partly out of habit, but he was genuinely intrigued at this point. While they weren’t broadcasting their conversation, Pegasus had just declared himself an enemy of Gozaburo, not only publicly but at an event that Gozaburo was hosting. Pegasus had guts if nothing else, and Pegasus could potentially be an ally. The question was whether he would be as strong of an ally as he seemed to imply.

“Oh, quite simple. I am connecting the world through love.” Seto would have thought the comment was a joke if Pegasus’s face weren’t completely serious. “And, don’t laugh. I know not every social media interaction is a bouquet of roses, but I am working to connect people, and you don’t see all the other work I’m doing towards that goal on my end. I have organizations devoted specifically to finding ways to resolve conflict without resorting to senseless violence. Ways to let that energy out and decide who might have won without any bloodshed, without anyone having to die.”

Seto hadn’t heard of these organizations, but while he had done his share of research, he also couldn’t know every subsidiary owned by every attendant to an event Gozaburo hosted. He’d have to look more into that later.

Pegasus continued, “Meanwhile, Gozaburo depends on the world tearing itself apart. He can’t imagine life any other way. That’s how he makes his money. I’m almost convinced that’s how he gets his kicks too.”

A chuckle escaped Seto’s lips without permission. “You’re at least right about Gozaburo.”

“Oh, I am?” Pegasus let out a hearty laugh before reaching down to pull a small notebook out of his bag. “I’ll keep that in mind. But, my point is that I can only imagine that he invited me to rub your invention in my face. I mean a piece of state of the art graphics technology- almost begging to be used for something more- that he’ll never truly let free. And, I think he was rubbing it in your face as well.” Pegasus opened up the notebook to reveal crisp drawing paper and flipped through the pages of doodles and notes until he reached a particularly spectacular sketch.

From the middle of the page, Seto stared out at himself in abject terror. Gozaburo’s hand weighted down his shoulder mouth open and rambling and looking in a different direction. A few indistinct figures sat on either side, and a few lines suggestive of smoke drifted up around him. Everything seemed so deliberate and well-placed that Seto almost forgot the smoke hadn’t been there for Pegasus to see.

The night of the banquet.

“You don’t want him to soil your work like that, and to be honest, I can’t stop him. But, I can give your invention another chance at life.”

Seto composed his features before looking Pegasus in the eye. This was important. “What sort of chance?”

“Well...” Pegasus paused and took a deep breath before his eyes shot open in excitement “There is actually a game that we are working on. A card game, or perhaps a video game… video card game? We’ve got a lot of it figured out, but we are still ironing out some of the details-”

“Why not release as a card game first and then see if it catches on before investing in holotech. This seems a bit premature,” Seto narrowed his eyes, “I don’t want to discourage you. This is the exact thing holotech was designed for, but I need to know that you know what you’re doing as well. The first release of my tech in gaming can’t be a flop.” Not only could it not be a flop. It had to be perfect. The world would punish anything else.

“Oh, quite the savvy businessman already,” Pegasus smiled. “I’ve brought on plenty of experts in the field, and unlike some companies in gaming, I’m willing to take the time to release a game correctly the first time. You’ll notice that even with the casual games we’ve developed, we have a significantly lower bug rate than our competitors. Plus,” Pegasus paused for a full second, “Wouldn't you rather your tech be incorporated into a project from the start so that we can design the game with it in mind rather than it being tacked on at the end?”

Seto hadn’t even had the chance to consider it from that perspective. He’d hoped and dreamed, but everything had been limited by the harsh reality Gozaburo had created. The idea that he could be a part of game design from the ground up…

Now wasn’t the time for fantasies. “So, how does the game work?”

“Remember what I said about politics? That’s the conceit.” Seto raised an eyebrow. That didn’t sound like an interesting game. “Not like people dressed in suits, but supernatural lords, ladies, and lieges duking it out in duels using monsters and magic. A bit violent maybe, but isn’t the point to get all that energy out in a place where it won’t actually hurt anyone? And, I think your holograms would just bring the wonderful creatures we’ve captured to life. Just imagine wizards and dragons battling head to head right in front of your eyes.”

Now that sounded tempting. Too tempting. “Even if I were to want to get involved with this, how would you deal with the fact that Kaiba Corp and thus Gozaburo own the rights to the technology. You’d be paying anyways, but I couldn’t even give it away if I wanted to.”

“Oh, of course, you would be compensated in any scenario. And, we’ll have to figure something out. I’ll see what I can do to convince Gozaburo on my end, though having a bit of leverage may help. Something to help him see the value in the project.”

“You want me to first make you something for your game.” Seto wasn’t sure how he felt about that. It felt like a jab for free labor. As if he wasn’t already run ragged.

“Only if you have the time, and only if you want to. I’m certainly not going to force thirteen-year-old boys to do work for me paid or unpaid, no matter how gifted they are.” Pegasus looked appalled at the unspoken accusation. “Instead you could consider it a chance to figure out whether it is a project your actually interested in pursuing. Plus, it might take a bit of work to figure out some of the compatibility issues. What little tech we have is… quite unique. By necessity of course, but getting things to connect will probably be half the challenge.”

“Unique how?”

“Oh, well,” Pegasus gave a chuckle, “It would be a bit hard to explain. Probably better to get your hands dirty working on it to understand. Something tells me you’d have an intuitive sense of it once you got going or at least once you’d worked with it enough for it to click.”

Seto considered the offer then. He didn’t have much free time, but he had snuck the hologram project into his engineering classes. Teachers could be so easy to fool or at least nudge in the right direction. Especially since in engineering he was usually five steps ahead of where they thought he was anyways. He showed he was keeping pace with the teachers but didn’t let on how much he really knew, not directly, since it gave him time to plan and push things along. It also meant that he would have less difficult homework and could use some of that time tinkering on his own projects in plain sight.

Of course, things got harder once the teachers found out about the holograms. Once they see you’re a fucking genius, they tend to watch you a little more closely. And, then they poke and prod you and turn your own project into school work to be scrutinized at every turn.

Still, he could manage. He always managed.

However, there was an important piece Seto needed to take care of if any of this was to stand any glimmer of a chance at happening. “Do you have any of the tech on you? If Gozaburo hates you as much as you say, I don’t think you’ll have many chances to drop things off. And, if it is clearly gaming related, I’ll have to have time to you know-” Pegasus squinted “- hide it. No games in the house.”

“No games except mind games it seems.” Pegasus pulled up a bag and started shuffling through it. “I think I have something… here!” Pegasus pulled out a card and handed it to Kaiba.

It was simple. Most of the space was filled with a drawing of a demonic creature sitting with its arms crossed. It had a strange sort of horn on its head, and wings coming out from behind its back. If the previous sketch had been stunning, this was meticulous. Seto could tell that it was a painting, but it almost looked lifelike, not just in the details but also in the expression and the way it sat. You could almost imagine it moving off of the card and rolling its eyes at you. On top of the card were the words ‘Ryu-Kishin.’

It was beautiful, but it wasn’t what Seto had been expecting. He glanced back up at Pegasus.

“Oh, we’re still working on things like attributes, the precise attack points, and flavor text. There’ll be a whole bestiary when we’re done.”

Seto glanced back down at the art. “It’s a card.” Not a piece of hardware or some lines of code on a USB. A trading card. He looked back up at Pegasus. “What am I supposed to do with it?” Was this some sort of joke?

“Bring it to life of course, and it does contain all the information to do so in…. in a chip, a computer chip. It’s fairly woven in there so don’t worry about getting it physically out. A simple scan of some sort should be able to do the trick. I’m not saying it will be easy, but it is there, ready to be projected to its full potential.” Pegasus had been poking and prodding the card to start but switched to a sweeping gesture at the end. He genuinely seemed to believe Seto could do it.

Seto, however, wasn’t quite as sure. “The compatibility issues you were talking about?”

Pegasus as if reached out to grab Seto’s cheek before deciding against it. “Aren’t you just the quickest boy on the block?” His cheery expression then fell. “Yes, and it’s a part of the reason we haven’t explored using more tech in our work earlier, but seeing the way your holograms could bend and twist the light on command, just… I needed to at least see if you could do it.”

“No guarantees.” But despite his cynical tone, his lips had twitched into a smile. “But first you should probably tell me more about how this game of yours works.”

A smile broke out on Pegasus’s face. “Oh, yes! I’d love to tell you more. Most of it is up here-” he tapped the side of his head- “But, first let me get out the notes.” He pulled

They talked for another half hour about the dynamics of the game. The differences between attack and defense, and between spells and traps.

It became obvious as the conversation went on that while Pegasus was certainly gifted at strategy and game design, storytelling and lore were where his heart was at. For example, Pegasus had a good sense of how he wanted the game to unfold but found settling on specific mechanics to set those in motion difficult- not for failing to come up with ideas but in making a decision and sticking with it. Pegasus might have trouble deciding on the exact point value or effect implementation for a monster, but he knew them well enough to rank them in terms of attack, defense, and effect type.

Then on top of that, for every aspect of the game, Pegasus could produce a piece of lore to go beside it. The way he talked you could almost get lost in the world he was creating.

But, you couldn’t get lost forever. Eventually, reality would come crashing back in.

In particular, Gozaburo got back from the office, and unfortunately, Seto had been so lost in the conversation that he didn’t notice until Gozaburo was already yelling, “You thief!”

Seto immediately stuffed the card Pegasus gave him in his pocket and looked over his shoulder. Fortuantely, Gozaburo had started his tantrum as soon as he had entered the room and was still bulldozing his way across the room. The chances of him seeing the card were… slim, but that didn’t stop Seto’s hands from getting sweaty anyways.

Pegasus gave Seto a wink before he dramatically popped out of his chair and gestured to himself, “Moi? Whatever you possibly think I stole from you I have been sitting here in front of everyone chatting with your wonderful adopted son. He’s quite the little genius.” He offered a gigantic smile with warm nonchalant eyes back at Gozabro. He emphasized the final statement by giving Seto a light tap on the head, at which Seto instinctively tensed. Seto quickly gave Pegasus a glare but transferred it over to Gozaburo. If Pegasus saw Seto’s reaction, he didn’t give a clue, since he didn’t break eye contact with Gozaburo once.

“The hackers pulled away exactly thirty minutes ago with no reward for their effort, and while I don’t have any proof that you did it, you knew perfectly well that I wouldn’t let you anywhere near Seto. Yet, if you were here the whole time, you’ve spent the last- what, hour? Hour and a half?- picking Seto’s brain. You certainly have no respect for me, my business, or my family.”

“I respect one member of your family, but it certainly isn’t you,” Pegasus laughed. Seto cringed. The CEO had promised to draw attention away from him, but would there then be backlash later?

Gozaburo’s lips turned into their trademark sneer. “I ought to have you removed from the conference.”

Pegasus got out of his- what had been Gozaburo’s- seat and closed the distance between himself and Gozaburo. “Oh, please. Over a simple converastion with no proof of malicious intent. You are making a fool of yourself. What did you think I would do? Pull the plans for a complex piece of equipment directly out of his skull only for most of it to go so far over my head I’d never remember it anyways. And, even if I managed to replicate your tech, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to think you wouldn’t obliterate anyone who deigned violate your patent.”

At this point it looked like Gozaburo’s head was about to explode, and though Pegasus stood two hole inches higher, Gozaburo looked like he would any second break the younger man’s slender frame in half. “Oh, you probably think yourself all too clever to get away with it.”

“Well, rest assured Gozaburo that I am not a fool, and I’ll be getting out of your hair now anyways. I have my own business to take care of.” Pegasus gave Gozaburo a light tap on the shoulder, and Seto was almost shocked that he was able to pull back with his hand in one piece. Pegasus then stepped around Gozaburo, twisting just enough in the process to give Seto a wave and “Toodles!” before heading towards the door.

That night Seto received another bout of yelling and a grip so hard around his arm that it left bruises the next day. The alcohol from the evening mixer still hung on Gozaburo’s breath as he shouted that Seto was not to even look in Pegasus’s general direction. That the sneaky bastard corrupted everything he touched. That the clever fool was trying to rob the world of strength and replace it with giggling weakness. Gozaburo should have made sure that Pegasus hadn’t even gotten within ten feet of the vent.

Gozaburo’s grip on Seto’s arm tightened, and Seto fought a cringe from jumping onto his face. “He didn’t ask about the device, did he? He didn’t try to get any secrets out of you?”

Seto shook his head. He’d followed Gozaburo’s god damn rules. He didn’t reveal any company secrets.

“You didn’t even think about it, boy? I know he was trying something with you. Tryin’ to get you thinking of things you shouldn’t be. It will make it easier on both of us if you just say what he talked to you about.”

Seto glanced between Gozaburo’s fiery eyes and the hand around his arm. He tried to pull it out but continued the motion into a shrug when it didn’t work. “I don’t know. Pegasus thought the holograms looked cool and wanted to see if he could use them. He never asked how they worked, but he was familiar enough with the market to know how cutting edge they are beyond just ‘ooo pretty lights’. I still told him he’d have to talk to you first.”

Gozaburo’s eyes narrowed. “Familiar enough with the market? There are no other holograms on the market.”

Seto didn’t know. “He mentioned that my way of implementation made it even more versatile. Mentioned something about off market models, whatever those are.” And the unfortunate thing was that Seto actually didn’t know; he couldn’t remember any of the details. There was also the risk that if Gozaburo pushed too hard he’d figure out about the trading card still burning a hole in Seto’s pocket. So, Seto tried to turn it back on Gozaburo. “I hadn’t realized I could be quizzed on things you weren’t even there for.”

The back of Gozaburo’s free hand collided with Seto’s shoulder, and suddenly a few sparks on the periphery of Seto’s vision exploded. Seto’s sleeve burst into flames.

Seto instinctively screamed and flailed.

In that instant, thoughts of Gozaburo’s retribution for misbehavior had evaporated. All he could think of was saving himself. He pulled the cuff of his other sleeve over his palm and furiously patted against the fire while he yanked at Gozaburo’s grip. Finally, his arm pressed against Gozaburo’s thumb, which finally gave way. Seto stumbled for a moment before pulling his shirt off and throwing it onto the ground. He stamped and stamped against the fabric, but the flames continued spreading down the sleeve.

“What in fucking hell are you doing, boy!”

  
“I’m putting out… putting out the fire...” Even as the words exited Seto’s mouth, he knew something was wrong.

Seto looked at Gozaburo’s shocked face then back down at the shirt. The flames were still there, but something was off about them. They were perhaps too big too strong for simple fabric, and now that he thought about it there wasn’t any heat. Nor was there any reason for his shirt to have caught fire in the first place. His breaths turned heavy and shallow, as he stared at what could only be a vision that just wouldn’t go away.

“You weren’t joking about the smoke the other night. You really are a broken piece of shit.”

The world seemed to warp around Seto for a full moment before the words hit him like a brick. Gozaburo hated him, really hated him. Seto already knew that Gozaburo didn’t actually love him, that Gozaburo could be cruel, that he would push Seto to his limits. But, at least he had seen Seto as useful then. Now Seto didn’t even have that, and the orphanage hovered at the front of his mind. Life was easier then in some ways, but there was no future for him there either. At least now there was something to suffer for.

Dear god, he didn’t want to go back.

As soon as Seto’s mouth opened, the words wouldn’t stop pouring out. “Please, it won’t happen in public, I swear. I usually don’t react at all. And, I can still think. I designed the holograms, didn’t I? And, I can design other things for you-”

Gozaburo gave a laugh. “Actual weapons this time?”

Seto paused. Fuck. He was getting backed into a corner. He knew it, yet he couldn’t stop it. “Maybe. Yes. If I had to.”

“After your outburst the other night, I’ll believe it when I see it.” Gozaburo grabbed Seto by the shoulders and pushed him towards the stairs. “No, you are going to go to your room and stay there. I’ll have to make some excuse for why you are not going to be attending the last days of the conference. You will get work done and won’t leave this house for any reason during that time.” Gozaburo rolled his eyes and looked away.

Seto stood there for a moment still processing what was going on. Despite himself, he lightly stamped his foot on the shirt, a part of him still unable to believe that the flames weren’t there.

However, that moment didn’t last forever, and Gozaburo gave him a kick. “Have you gone deaf as well?”

Seto picked up his shirt, trying to ignore the embers falling from it, and then ran to his room, slamming the door on the way in. He then leaned against the inside of the door and started hyperventilating. He tossed the shirt across the room and glared at it. The room eventually started bluring, but this time it was because of unwanted tears building up behind his eyes. He tried to hold them back, but they escaped anyways. At least he was able to hold back the sobs fighting in his throat just in case Gozaburo walked by the hall outside.  
He couldn’t afford to show any weakness now. Any weakness would be a reason for Gozaburo to completely give up on him.

A while afterward, long after the shirt’s false embers finally died out, Seto heard a knock on his door, which caused him to jump. He ran to put his shirt on and tried to dry his eyes before cracking the door open, half-expecting Gozaburo to be on the other side ready to pounce. But, the knock had been too light and too low with no thundering footsteps preceding it, and Seto found himself looking down at a wide-eyed Mokuba. Seto opened the door wider for Mokuba to come in.

Mokuba waited until Seto closed the door again to whisper, “Heard yelling downstairs. Worse than usual. Needed to check that you were ok.”

Seto turned away. “I’m doing fine. You should go back to bed.”

“No, you aren’t,” Mokuba deadpanned. Seto hated that Mokuba could tell so easily, but he didn’t want to reveal how bad things actually were. “Plus, you’ve been gone the past few days, and I haven’t seen you at all.”

That finally chipped away at Seto’s resolve, and he sat down against the wall and patted the space next to him. Almost instantly, Mokuba appeared beside him. Seto took a deep breath and put his head in his heads. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mokuba looking up at him. He let out a heaving sigh and rolled his shoulders. “I’ll figure this out. Like I figure everything out.”

Mokuba’s lips turned down and he narrowed his eyes, “Figure what out?”

“Everything.” Seto hated how quickly Mokuba caught onto things. “Gozaburo is selling my invention to the military to train soldiers and found out about the visions. Accidentally slipped in front of him.”

“Oh.” The sound was so soft it barely made it out of Mokuba’s lips. “So that’s what he was mad about. Didn’t happen in front of everyone did it?” Seto hadn’t told Mokuba much about what was happening, but his brother already knew a little.

Mokuba was also already quite familiar with how Gozaburo cared more about public appearances than either of his supposed kids. One time Gozaburo yelled at Mokuba for crying in public after Mokuba had tripped and scraped his knee on something without doing anything to bandage the wound. Seto wasn’t sure how he had restrained himself from kicking Gozaburo in the shins that day. Seto didn’t care about suppressing his own tears, and he didn’t want Mokuba to ever have a reason to cry. But, Mokuba should be allowed to cry for help whenever he needed it. So, he could be there whenever Mokuba needed it.

“No...” Seto let out a small sigh of relief. “Or rather it didn’t cause problems then. But, it happened now, and he thinks I’m worthless. I’ll prove him wrong though. There will be no more slip-ups, and I’ll make something even better.”

Mokuba nodded, and Seto got the feeling his brother didn’t understand how hard of a task he actually set out to do. Top the holograms? How was that going to happen? Not slip up ever? He was already trying so hard to not let anyone know, and apparently, even that effort wasn’t enough. Plus, succeeding all of that, would it really be enough to convince Gozaburo that he wasn’t a pile of shit? Seto didn’t want to ruin Mokuba’s optimism yet, but he still didn’t quite predict the next words out of his brother’s mouth, “You’ll be so great you’ll leave him behind in the dust.”

That caused a smile to creep onto Seto’s face. “Yeah, he’s the one that’s worthless, selling weapons and hating games. I’ll use him and spit him out. Take his company and build something better.”

Seto glanced over at Mokuba to find his brother beaming up at him, eating up every word he said. Seto’s smile spread into a full-on grin, and he got up to stand on the bed. If hearing about this made Mokuba happy then, damn right, he was going to preach this. Plus, if Mokuba could believe it, then maybe he could as well, if just for the night before reality came crashing back in. He gestured wildly as he continued, careful to keep his voice to a whisper, “I’ll crush his dreams and rise above them. I’ll be the Kaiba people think about, not him. By the time I’m done with Gozaburo, he’ll wish he were me!”

Mokuba was lightly tapping his hands together in silent applause. He rocked back and forth before asking, “So, how are you gonna do it?!”

Seto hesitated a moment. He certainly couldn’t tell Mokie that he no fucking idea. “Uh...”

He was having trouble thinking, and Mokuba’s expectant and hopeful eyes were boring holes into his chest. He knew Mokuba wasn’t expecting a miracle, but he still needed to provide something. Anything. He shifted his weight around and slowly swung his arms.

Then suddenly it clicked.

He stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out the card Pegasus had given him, holding it upward like it was his ticket to freedom. “With this!”

 

* * *

 

 

Kaiba laughed at himself as the memory passed through his head.

Looking down at the mountain of paperwork he’d excavated on the duel box project, he was reminded that getting the tech to this stage had itself cost him a lot of blood and tears. Solving the compatibility issues and making the holograms realistic and dynamic, responding in real time to the information the cards gave them, had almost been harder than creating his first hologram.

Yet, despite all the hours he’d spent almost yelling at the hardware, it had been a worthwhile distraction from everything else. A puzzle that constantly pushed back and didn’t want to be solved. Something he could wrestle with. Something satisfying. He was almost disappointed to turn it over to the engineers the first time, but even if he weren’t taking over the chief executive functions of the company and school work, projects such as these required an inordinate amount of grunt work as well that would have sucked every last hour from his day.

Now he was just disappointed.

Looking over the material would help him figure out where things went astray, both in terms of design and Pegasus. As much as Kaiba loved working on this game, he hated the idea that he was somehow played, especially without knowing what had happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I feel like I've been away forever!!!
> 
> So, one note I want to have was that I had deliberately left if vague whether there had been physical abuse up until now, since I wanted to emphasize how much the emotional and psychological abuse could get to Seto anyways. The tipping point for including it in this chapter was having to go in and write in Kaiba's outburst and that I thought Gozaburo would want a more immediate retaliation to that sort of thing (especially since he had already implemented a psychological attack by forcing Seto to stay up late.
> 
> Another thing was that when I opened the document to begin the chapter I actually hadn't planned for this to be when Gozaburo had unveiled the holographic technology. But, I needed more context for the meeting and suddenly this developed, and then Seto was having a panic attack, and Gozaburo was being Gozaburo. I had to go back in and do edits cause the first time I actually had it as the first time he realized he was hallucinating, but then I remembered that the hallucinations were supposed to inspire holotech some. He still isn't as well versed at dealing with them at this point though and is way more easily fooled than he is later.
> 
> I also enjoyed writing a Seto that was still very much afraid of Gozaburo in some ways, but also could still lash out occasionally. That Gozaburo had a lot of power over Seto to the point where it is constricting, but that Seto still tries to carve out some pockets of resistance.


End file.
